Stars Hollow on Shuffle
by Slovesemmett
Summary: This is a bunch of random snippets based on putting my iPod on shuffle. This is a series of unrelated one shots - Chapter 14 - Somebody Told Me - Post Finale - Rory.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own Gilmore Girls **

**This is just a bunch of random bits based on the song titled above each one. As a warning, I have an eclectic taste in music, so these are really random. Some are set in series, some before, some after. Nothing too crazy, and all over the board for points of view. The stories are also shuffled, they're in no logical order at all. **

**Let me know if you enjoy it, I had a lot of fun doing it, and this is maybe a stand alone, or maybe more... see the details in the end Author's Note.**

* * *

**I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight – U2**

"Rory, come on! Let's just go!" he tells her.

"Jess, I can't just leave. I'm not that girl," she replies.

"Please?" he begs. "I can't take it. I can't be here anymore, this place is making me crazy."

She pauses for a moment, considering his pleas. "For how long?"

"I don't know, an hour, a day, a week, forever?"

"Okay."

He picks her up and spins her around, "Thank you!" he whispers in her ear as he holds her close to him. She nods and they run towards his car.

**Ain't Nothing Wrong With That – Robert Randolph and the Family Band**

The town square is filled to the brim with every possible member of the community. They're all different and unique. Lorelai smiles knowing that they're all there for her, well for her and Rory. She can't believe her baby girl is getting married, and is willing to subject her husband and his family to the craziness that is Stars Hollow. At least no one can claim they didn't know about the crazies before the wedding.

**Set Adrift on Memory Bliss – PM Dawn**

He opened the door to find his wife dancing in the living room. She was singing off key with the radio, and his breath was taken away. He couldn't believe after all these years she was finally his, and still so amazing.

"You know the Go-Go's broke up years ago right?" he asked after we watched her for a while.

"Gah! You scared me! Never sneak up on a Gilmore! How do you not know this lesson yet?" she asked.

"You'd think that after more than 30 years I'd learn that lesson," he said with a smile.

"You'd think," she smiled back at him. "Come dance with me?"

He wandered over to a rack of cds and pulled out an album to pop into the cd player, the song started and he extended his hand to her. "May I have this dance?"

She nodded and took his hand, "This is the first song we ever danced to."

"I know."

"I love you Christopher."

"I've loved you all my life Lorelai."

**Keep It Simple – Cobra Starship**

"Zach, get Steve and Kwan out of here!" Lane yelled as she tried to keep her two year old twins away from the recording equipment.

"Sorry babe, I had an idea and I had to jot it down," Zach said coming out of the bedroom. "You know how the muse works."

"Daddy!" one of the twins called excitedly.

"Hey little dudes! You want to go get some ice cream to get out of Mommy's hair for a bit?" he asked as he knelt down in front of them.

"Ice screen!" they both shrieked and ran towards him.

"Thanks babe," Lane said as the trio headed for the door.

"Anything for you."

Lane plopped down on the couch next to Rory. "Nothing's simple anymore is it?"

"No, and you love it!" her best friend reminded her.

**King of Pain – The Police**

He pulled the truck over to the side of the road after about ten minutes. Did he really just walk away from her? He banged his head on the steering wheel.

"She just looked so comfortable with those guys in their suits, and she was wearing all of those diamonds! She was wearing a tiara," he said aloud trying to rationalize his behavior. "She would have left me eventually anyhow."

He swiped angrily at the tears that had fallen down his cheeks and restarted the car. He really was an idiot.

**Machinehead – Bush**

She took a deep breath and tried to regain control of herself. She was a Gilmore damnit she was strong enough to get through this. Her heart had been broken before, and it would probably be broken again. She sighed deeply and forced herself to sit up in bed. She felt around blindly looking for the cordless phone. He'd called several times and she had refused to answer, and now she finally needed to call him back.

"Lorelai?" he answered on the first ring.

"It's me," she said after a minute or so.

"Talk to me," he begged.

"I don't want to!" she shouted back.

"Then why did you call?" he asked honestly confused.

She sighed. "I need you. Bring cookie dough."

**For A Little While – Tim McGraw**

The California heat was so intense he was sure he could literally fry an egg on his sidewalk. He'd been in Palo Alto for two months, and he was still miserable. He didn't know why he tortured himself by staying the house with the avocado tree, but he did it just the same.

He walked into his backyard with a beer and sat down under the shade of that tree, and thought of better times. As much as it hurt, he would rather have had her once then to have never had her at all. He took a strong pull of his beer and closed his eyes hoping someday soon things would get better.

**Sing For Absolution – Muse**

"I said I'm sorry, what more do you want?" she shouts at her mother.

"I want you to fix it Lorelai. I want you to do the right thing!" Emily shouts back at her.

"What's right for you isn't what's right for me," she screams, "why can't you understand that?"

"Lorelai, calm down. All that screaming can't be good for the baby," Richard interjects.

"God! Can't you just love me?" Lorelai begs, tears streaming down her face.

Emily cracks first, she rushes to Lorelai's side and pulls her into her arms. "We do love you sweetheart. We just want what's best for you."

Lorelai sobs harder. "We'll try to be more open minded, just please stop crying," Richard says as he approaches her offering her his handkerchief.

**Embraceable You – Ella Fitzgerald**

They were seated for dinner, exactly the same way they'd done it almost every night for the last 45 years.

"I was thinking we should go to New York for the weekend," Emily said thoughtfully.

"Why?" Richard asked curiously.

"I just thought a night of dinner and dancing at the Rainbow Room would be nice. We haven't done that in a long time."

"No we haven't," he said. "Book the trip and we'll go, it's been too long since I've had you in my arms on the dance floor."

She smiled and looked up at him. "I love you Richard Gilmore."

"And I'm glad I married you and not Pennilynn Lott," he teased.

**Keep The Faith – Bon Jovi**

"Bartender, another round!" the Australian called out.

"Make mine a double," Colin yelled.

"So which of these lovely ladies should I take home tonight?" Finn asked no one in specific.

"What makes you think any of those girls will go home with you?" Logan asked teasing his friend.

"Yeah Finn, there are only a few redheads here, what if none of them are interested?" Rory added.

"You've gotta keep the faith, love," Finn told her. "And there goes my future wife." He left his friends to follow a tall redhead across the room.

**Can't Fight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon**

"I told you I wasn't boyfriend material," Logan reminded her.

"And I accepted that. You're the one that decided you needed to prove you could do it," she reminded him in turn.

"I didn't want to lose you."

"I don't blame you, I'm a pretty great girl," she said with a sudden boost of self confidence.

"Don't I know it?" he teased.

"Seriously though Logan, fights are part of relationships. They're going to happen. You just have to decide if it's worth it."

"It is. You are infinitely worth it."

**1985 – Bowling For Soup**

"Mom?" her daughter started.

"Yeah Sweets?"

"Is your life what you thought it would be?" she asked seriously.

"Yes and no."

"Well that's not an answer!" her daughter exclaimed indignantly.

"I guess you have to look at it from a specific point in time. In 1985, did I think I'd be here today? Well no, but I was still holding out hopes of being the fifth Bangle. How do you think I got rid of the pregnancy weight?"

"You can't sing though," Rory reminded her.

"Honey there are several recording artists out there that can't sing."

"So are you upset with the way your life turned out? Bangles aside of course," she said turning the conversation back to the serious side.

"Of course not. I have more than I could ever have wished for, I have you." She pulled her daughter into a hug.

**Have A Little Faith In Me – John Hiatt**

"Shhhh," he soothed, "Don't cry Rory, please don't cry."

"But-" she started.

"Do you trust me?" he asked. She nodded in response. "Then have a little faith. We'll get through this."

"But Mom…" she started again.

"I know Mom would have known better, but I promise, it's going to be okay."

"Okay Dad."

He got up and crossed the room, spraying the turkey one more time with the fire extinguisher, just in case. "Now, where are the take out menus?"

**Waking Up In Vegas – Katy Perry**

Rory woke up and it felt like there were elephants practicing ballet in her head. She gingerly opened her eyes, finding the lashes stuck together from her failure to remove her makeup the night before. She stretched and hit something solid on the other side of the bed.

"Ugh," the mass groaned.

"Sorry babe," she said.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Uh, Vegas I think."

"Please tell me we didn't get married!" Logan exclaimed.

She smiled to herself, and then decided to tell the truth since her headache won't allow her to hear more yelling. "Don't worry babe, it wasn't us." She looked down at the sparkling engagement ring on her fourth finger. "Ours is still coming."

"But someone did get married?" he asked.

"Yeah, Colin and Steph, don't you remember? It was your idea."

**Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't) – All Time Low**

He really wanted to hit someone. Not that it would do any good, and really with his luck as of late he'd probably end up with an assault charge. But man did he want to hit someone.

Why couldn't they have moved out of town? But no, instead he had to watch them walk around the town hand in hand. At least they didn't come into the diner, but he still saw them everywhere else.

If he could pick one thing in his life to redo, it would be marrying Lorelai. He should have said yes and dragged her off to Atlantic City that night, his stalling was never because he didn't want to marry her. But now it was too late, and he was stuck with constant reminders of what might have been.

He stood up from the chair in his apartment and punched the wall behind him.

**Take Me As I Am – Sugarland**

She turned the volume up on her iPod hoping if she got it loud enough she could drown out his words, which were playing over and over in her head.

"Not everyone is perfect like you are Rory," he had shouted as he stormed out of the restaurant.

She leaned her head against the window of the bus, and silently wiped the tears that had made their way down her face. Why couldn't he just understand that she wasn't perfect either? That she didn't have to be perfect to be worth it.

**Here I Go Again – Whitesnake**

He entered the hallowed halls of Chilton and wondered if she would remember him. He'd been such an ass to her when she'd started here that he wouldn't be surprised if she blocked him from her memory all together.

A bell rang indicating that classes done for the day, and students began to pour out of various classrooms. He wanted to duck into the restroom and hide until he was officially reenrolled for classes, but he wasn't quick enough.

"Tristan?" he heard a familiar voice call out to him before he could move. It was the same voice he'd heard countless times in his dreams, it sounded as angelic as he remembered.

"Hey Mare, I'm back. Did you miss me?"

**Somebody Told Me – The Killers**

"Can I get another martini here?" she asked the bartender.

"Coming right up, Miss." He set a fresh glass in front of her a minute later. She picked it up and took a healthy sip. She knew he was here, she could feel it. She hadn't seen him since she turned him down a year and a half ago. She was sure he was here with some hot blonde girl, all moved on and happy while she was still miserable with out him. At least that was the last rumor she'd heard. She tried to block out Hartford gossip, but her grandmother couldn't take the hint and kept peppering her with information about him.

She tipped the glass up finishing the drink and called to the bartender for a third one.

"You should really slow down there," a familiar voice said from behind her.

"Logan, hey." She hoped he wouldn't get too close, she wasn't sure if she could stop herself from grabbing on to him and begging for another chance.

**Our House – Madness**

Gigi Hayden watched her little brothers run around the front yard, chasing each other with squirt guns.

"Gigi," they yelled and came running towards her guns a-blazing.

She put her hands up to cover her face, "Mark! Richie! Stop it right now!" she squealed.

The front door opened and her father came out, "what's going on out here?"

"Just squirt gun fights," Gigi explained. "For some reason they decided to attack me."

Christopher smiled at her, "I'll fix it," he whispered with a conspiratorial wink. Not more than a minute later he was chasing both boys around the yard spraying them with the garden hose.

They were so caught up in the action that they didn't notice a car pull into the driveway until the boys screamed "Mommy!" and went running towards Lorelai as she got out of the car. Gigi could see her dad try to stop, but he wasn't in time, Lorelai got drenched with the hose.

"Christopher!" she shouted, but Gigi could tell she wasn't really mad. She stayed on the porch laughing at her family.

**Everything – Buckcherry**

She was having a nervous breakdown. She hadn't had one in years, but right now she felt like she deserved it.

"Paris? Are you decent?" she heard her best friend call from outside of her door. "I'm coming in either way, so I'm just really giving you polite notice."

"Agh! Fine! Come on in!" she shouted.

"So, you want to tell me what's going on?" Rory asked her. "Nanny says you haven't gotten out of bed in three days."

"He left me Rory. He. Left. Me," she enunciated carefully.

"What?"

"Doyle. He's gone. He kissed the kids goodbye and headed out the door. I haven't seen him in a week."

"What ever it is, you'll work it out, I promise," Paris tried to cut her off but Rory kept talking. "And if not, you'll get through it, we'll help you in any way we can."

"Do you think Logan would destroy him for me?" she asked, hopeful for the first time in days. "Professionally of course," she added for good measure.

**Misery Business – Paramore **

"I never want to see you again!" she screamed and slammed the door.

Luke looked up from his position at the counter to see his daughter angrily storm past him and head up the stairs.

April sat down on her bed in her dad's apartment and fumed with anger. How dare he treat her like that? It was times like this that she missed her mom the most. She picked up the phone to call her in New Mexico but stopped when she heard the door to the apartment open.

"You okay?" her dad asked hesitantly as he poked his head in the door.

"I'll be fine Dad."

"Want to tell me what that was all about?"

"Nope." There were some things that a girl could never discuss with her father, and this was one of them.

"All right, well tell me if you need anything."

"Thanks Dad." He left the room and she flopped back on the bed to call her mother.

**What It Takes – Aerosmith **

He hadn't seen her in years, and yet there she was out of the blue, not more than twenty feet away from him, chatting happily with one of his colleagues. She looked the same as always.

He blinked twice to make sure she was still there, he'd randomly thought he'd seen her before a couple times, so he wanted to be doubly sure she was really there before he approached her. Convinced that she was, he walked over to her.

"Rory?" he started tentatively?

She spun to see him, "Marty! Is that you? What are you doing here?" She hugged him firmly and he inhaled deeply. It'd been 5 years since the Lucy debacle and she still smelled exactly the same.

"I work here, what are you doing here?" he asked when she finally let him go.

"I'm here with Logan. He seems to have business everywhere," she replied. He looked down and saw the gigantic sparkler of a ring on her all important finger, and felt like someone punched him in the stomach. He began to wonder if he'd ever get over her.

**Stop & Stare – OneRepublic**

He'd lived in Stars Hollow his entire life. People always took him for a bumbling idiot, but he paid attention to way more than he was given credit for. The reason he did as many jobs as he did was because he liked being around people. He knew he annoyed them, he just couldn't control himself, when he got excited and went overboard. Someday though, he'd be the one that would make them all stop and stare. He just hoped when he finally managed it, it would be for something good, and not because he'd screwed up again.

The life of Kirk Gleason – always on a search for something more.

**My Never – Blue October**

Colin looked over to see his bride still sound asleep in their honeymoon suite. He couldn't believe she finally agreed. Who'd of thought that uptight Colin McCrea would land someone as amazing as Stephanie Vanderbuilt. He waited for years for her to finally notice him, and then a few more for her to finally decide to date him. He smiled and slid closer to her pulling her into his arms.

His parents were going to die when they found out about the elopement, but some things needed to be done in exactly the right moment and this was one of them. She was finally his. Forever.

Thank God for Logan and Finn and their crazy plans!

**RESPECT – Aretha Franklin **

"Order, order!" Taylor called as he banged his gavel on the podium. "I'd like to get back to the matter at hand."

"Taylor, we've been here for three hours now," Lorelai called from the second row.

"Yeah Taylor, we're tired!" Rory whined from the seat next to her.

"Come on sugah, hurry up and take a vote already," Babette added from the back row.

"There are just a few more points I'd like to cover," he told them. He felt his gavel being pulled from his hand, and he looked over to see Miss Patti standing next to him.

"All in favor say 'Aye,'" she called when she had the gavel in hand. The crowd was silent. "All opposed say 'Nay.'"

A chorus of 'nays' erupted from the crowd, and she banged the gavel on the podium. "The nays have it." As soon as she said that people started getting up to leave.

"Wait, people! I haven't dismissed the meeting," he shouted. No one even bothered to turn and acknowledge him. "I'm the town selectman people, you should respect me!" he yelled to the now empty room.

**Dirty Little Secret – The All-American Rejects**

Shira ground the butt of her cigarette into the top of the brick bulkhead in her garden and instantly lit another one. She put it to her lips and inhaled deeply. She couldn't believe this was happening.

"Shira are you out here?" she heard Mitchum call from the terrace.

"Yes," she replied weakly hoping he wouldn't come out to talk to her, he hated it when she smoked.

"Are you smoking?" he asked.

"My son is about to propose to that girl! What do you think?" she shot back bitterly.

"All right, well let me know if you need another pack."

**Sweet Child of Mine – Guns N' Roses**

He locked his door as he entered his office, he didn't want to be interrupted. He pulled the shades too, just in case. He headed over to the bar behind the desk and poured himself a scotch, then sat at his desk and fished a set of keys out of his pocket. He found the smallest key on the ring and set about opening the locked drawer of his desk. Once it was open he felt around until he found what he was looking for, a photo album.

He pulled the album out and set it in front of him. He took a large sip of his scotch then opened the book. He flipped through the pages of photos of his kids growing up. Honor's first Halloween costume, she was a princess. Logan's first birthday, he had chocolate cake smeared everywhere. School pictures. Birthday party pictures. Formal dance pictures. He hated that his kids thought he didn't love them, maybe they'd change their opinions if they ever saw him as he was now, staring lovingly at the pictures of them. He'd never tell them about this, it was better for his business image that the whole world thought he was a hardnosed bastard. Even his own kids.

**Beware! Cougar! – The Academy Is…**

"You have to admit he's cute!" the chef squealed.

"Totally," her best friend agreed.

"I would just love to bake him a cake," Sookie confessed.

"Bake him a cake Sook? That's what you'd want to do with him?"

"You know celebrities, they never get to eat," she explained.

"What are you two talking about?" Michel asked as he came into the kitchen.

Lorelai lifted the page of the magazine they were looking at to show him a picture of the young actor they were discussing.

"That's disgusting. You two are old enough to be his mother! I'm going back to the front desk." Michel shook his head at the two women and promptly left the kitchen with the sound of Sookie and Lorelai laughing echoing in his ears.

**Love Drunk – Boys Like Girls**

They'd been dating for a few months before he realized it. She wasn't the one. He was still stuck on the girl that broke his heart a year ago. No matter how cute and sweet and fun Savannah was, she'd never replace Rory.

He stuck it out for another few months, hoping that if he tried hard enough he could train himself to love her. On paper she was perfect for him, he just couldn't get past the fact that she wasn't Rory. He kept taking her to parties and buying her things. But in the end, he couldn't do it. Everybody deserved to be with someone who loved them. He had to find a way to get Rory back.

**Not Your Girl – Bree Sharp**

His every touch drove her crazy! She tried to control her reactions to it around him, but she wanted desperately to attach herself to him and never let him go. But he wasn't that kind of guy, and she knew it, so instead she'd settle for what she could have. A few minutes of flirting and the occasional roll in the sheets.

It was that damn Founders Day Punch that finally made her see the light, and she finally had to admit it, to herself, as well as him. "I'm not your kind of girl."

* * *

**AN: **

**Okay guys! Here's my idea, and you can tell me if you think it sucks. I'm going to leave this open, and use this a title page for a bunch of one-shots. One shots based on these snippets here. You, as the readers, can tell me which ones you want to see expanded, and I'll try to do them in the order in which they're suggested. (There are some that belong together, and if those are requested I'll probably combine them into one chapter.) **

**So if you're interested, review and tell me which scenes you'd like to see expanded. (Come on, you know you want to know more about Mitchum as a softie, and find out who Lorelai and Sookie are checking out in the magazine!)**

**Also - I am admittedly Rogan/Balcony Buddy - HOWEVER - there are several scenes in here that could obviously be Trory/Literati/JavaJunky if you want a scene elaborated in a certain way (ie: Here I Go Again as the start of a great Trory) let me know, and I'll see what I can do to accommodate you. **

**Lastly - this does not mean that I've given up on Winning Back The Gilmore Girls - I've just got the writing bug right now. **

**Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you - S**


	2. Have A Little Faith In Me

**AN: Here's the first one shot on the shuffle. Per DramaQueen1103's request here is Have A Little Faith In Me.**

**I don't own the show or the song. **

**Note about the song: This is one of my absolute favorite songs. The song has been covered many times, so if you think you haven't heard it, you may be wrong. John Hiatt however is the original songwriter and does a great Bluesy Rock version of the song. The version I have is from the album The Best of John Hiatt. **

* * *

_Cause I've been loving you for such a long time, baby, Expecting nothing in return, Just for you to have a little faith in me – John Hiatt_

He'd been back in Hartford for almost three months now. It had taken him a month to get the courage up to call Lorelai, and another two weeks for him to get her to return his call.

"I don't know Christopher," Lorelai told him hesitantly.

"It's one night Lorelai," he reminded her.

"But she's never spent the night with you before."

"Come on Lore, she's eight, not eight months, and I live less than a half an hour away," he whined. "She's my daughter too!"

"Funny how you only seem to remember that when it's convenient for you," she said sharply.

"I just want one holiday with my daughter is that so bad? I thought you would be happy that I was finally stepping up here. Hell it's not even the actual holiday. It's the day after Thanksgiving so I don't disrupt her normal Thanksgiving routine with you," he paused and took a deep breath. "Please?"

"Are you done with your rant?" she asked.

"Depends, are you going to let her stay over?"

She sighed loudly and he was pretty sure he had her. "Tell me about your apartment."

"It's a small two bedroom, but the second bedroom is an office with a double bed in it. It's off 42nd Street near Grand," he told her.

"And what about picking her up and dropping her off? You can't do that on a motorcycle."

"I'll rent a car for the weekend."

"Fine. You can pick her up on Friday morning, and drop her off Saturday afternoon," she finally agreed.

"Thank you Lorelai. And just think, you'll have a chance to get some Christmas shopping done!" he tried to point out a bright side.

"See you the Friday after Thanksgiving. And Chris? If you cancel…" she started, but he cut her off before she could finish.

"I know. I won't cancel."

* * *

He spent his spare time the next few weeks at the library looking through various cookbooks trying to find the best recipes for all of the traditional Thanksgiving Day favorites. He also took some time to go pick out some things Rory might like. He knew she loved to read but he steered clear of books, not knowing what she already had. Instead he bought a couple of board games they could play together, as well as some art supplies and a copy of the new Disney movie on video, and a special girly comforter for the guest bed.

* * *

Friday morning he stopped at the Alamo Rental place and rented a small sedan, then made the drive out to Stars Hollow. He pulled into the driveway to find Rory eagerly waiting for him on the front porch.

"Dad!" she squealed and came flying at him.

"Hey Kid!" he said as he caught her and spun her around. "Are you ready for another Thanksgiving?"

"Well we did have three yesterday, but I suppose I can handle one more," she told him quietly.

"Three yesterday?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "One at Sookie's, one at Mrs. Kim's and one at Luke's."

He accepted her answer and looked down at the pile of stuff on the stairs. "Are you all ready to go?" he asked.

"Yep!"

"Okay, well go say good-bye to your Mom while I load your stuff in the car." He watched as she ran back into the house, and then he grabbed her small suitcase, her backpack, and her pillow and put them in the trunk of the car. When he had finished loading the car he noticed that Lorelai had joined Rory on the porch, she was bent down talking to Rory and no doubt giving her all sorts of last minute reminders.

"Hey Lore!" he called, not wanting to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Hey."

"You sure you've got everything Ror?" he asked. She nodded, and he glanced at Lorelai. "I'll bring her back to you tomorrow afternoon."

She nodded and pulled Rory into one more hug. "You be good for your dad Sweets, and call me if you need me."

"Bye Mommy!" Rory told her then raced towards the car.

He saw the look of sadness on Lorelai's face and decided to say something before he left. "We'll be fine Lore. I'll have her back before you have a chance to miss her, completely unharmed even." She nodded once and raised her hand to wave goodbye.

* * *

Several hours later, Rory had already beaten him once at Monopoly and twice at Battleship, and now she was seated at his kitchen counter drawing pictures while he was cooking.

This cooking thing was not as easy as the cookbooks made it seem. First, nowhere in the recipe for the stuffing did it say that it should be inserted into the turkey before the turkey was put in to the oven. He solved that one by baking the stuffing in a separate pan. Second, no one told him that it was possible to over mash the potatoes. He solved that by treating it like potato soup. And third, he forgot the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie. At least he had vanilla ice cream, and they could probably make due.

He was finishing up the rolls when he heard Rory scream.

"Daddy!" she shrieked. He looked up to find his normally articulate daughter pointing at the oven. He looked to the oven to find smoke pouring out of it profusely.

"It's okay Rory, I've got it," he reassured her. He opened the door to the oven to find the turkey aflame. Rory gasped behind him, and he quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher that he kept under the sink. He put the turkey out easily but when he turned around he saw Rory crying at the counter. He rushed over to her side.

"Sweetie what's wrong? Are you hurt?" he asked.

"It's ruined!" she cried.

"Shhhh," he soothed, "Don't cry Rory, please don't cry."

"But-" she started.

"Do you trust me?" he asked. She nodded in response. "Then have a little faith. We'll get through this."

"But Mom…" she started again.

"I know Mom would have known better, but I promise, it's going to be okay."

"Okay Dad."

He got up and crossed the room, spraying the turkey one more time with the fire extinguisher, just in case. "Now, where are the take out menus?"

* * *

Two hours, and several cartons of Chinese food later, the smell of burnt turkey was finally starting to dissipate, and Rory and Christopher settled on to the couch to watch the new Disney movie.

"So that was a pretty fun Thanksgiving, right?" he asked.

"Mom would have known better," Rory reminded him.

"You're right, she would have ordered take out from the start!"

His daughter giggled and all was right with the world.

* * *

The rest of Friday night went just fine, as well as breakfast on Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon as promised he took Rory back to her mother in Stars Hollow.

"Hey Ror?" he asked before they got to her house.

"Yeah Dad?"

"You had fun right? I mean we did a good job together and all right?" he asked hesitantly, he wanted to make sure she was happy.

"Yeah, it was great!" she enthused.

"Good. And one more thing?" he requested.

"Yeah?"

"Can we keep the turkey thing a secret between us?" He grinned at her.

"I don't know Dad. It's pretty funny. Mommy would really like it, but I'll try."

"Thanks kid."

"No problem." She smiled at him as he pulled into the driveway, and he had a feeling that this weekend would be the first of many.

* * *

**AN: All right guys – tell me what you think and let me know what you want to see next! **

**Also - completely made up the streets where Chris lives, and don't own Alamo Rentals, Monopoly or Battleship :) **

**Thanks for reading - S**


	3. Waking Up In Vegas

**AN: Here is the second one shot. Per Blairbear014's request here is Waking Up in Vegas. **

**I bumped the rating up to T for a few minor swears and adult content. **

**I don't own the show or the song!**

* * *

_Why are these lights so bright? Did we get hitched last night? – Katy Perry_

Rory woke up and it felt like there were elephants practicing ballet in her head. She gingerly opened her eyes, finding the lashes stuck together from her failure to remove her makeup the night before. She stretched and hit something solid on the other side of the bed.

"Ugh," the mass groaned.

"Sorry babe," she said.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Uh, Vegas I think."

"Please tell me we didn't get married!" Logan exclaimed.

She smiled to herself, and then decides to tell the truth since her headache wouldn't allow her to hear more yelling. "Don't worry babe, it wasn't us." She looked down at the sparkling engagement ring on her fourth finger. "Ours is still coming."

"But someone did get married?" he asked.

"Yeah, Colin and Steph, don't you remember? It was your idea."

"It was my idea?"

"Yep. You really don't remember?" she asked him. He shook his head no. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Uhm, we were at the Life and Death Brigade Reunion at Rich Man's Shoe," he said sheepishly.

"Logan! That was two days ago!" Rory exclaimed.

"So why don't you fill me in on the details?" he asked with a smile. "Quietly."

* * *

_Two days earlier_

Rory and Logan entered Rich Man's Shoe to find the place packed with people who were active members of the Life and Death Brigade five years earlier. The LDB had several types of reunions, whole club reunions for all past and present members, alumni reunions for the alums, and the smaller year based reunions, only people who were active members in the designated year were invited. This was a year-based reunion from Logan's last year of college.

"Huntz!" They heard a drunken voice scream from the corner. Rory looked toward the sound to find Finn, Colin, Rosemary, Juliet, Stephanie, Robert and Seth occupying a large table in the corner. She grabbed Logan's hand and pulled him towards their friends.

"Hey guys," she said shyly from beside him. She and Logan had been back together for a while, they were even engaged, but she hadn't seen any of his friends except Colin, Finn and Stephanie since before she turned down his first proposal four years earlier. They all looked at her curiously.

"Reporter Girl!" Colin said drunkenly.

"Hey Rory," Steph said with a smile.

"Love!" Finn called jumping up to spin her around.

"Hey Finn. You wanna put me down?" she asked with a giggle. By the time Finn finally put her down, Logan was already in conversation with the rest of the table, so Rory settled in next to Stephanie.

"How are the wedding plans going?" Steph asked.

"Between my grandmother and Logan's mother, I think all I have to do is show up," Rory told her.

"Better than planning it yourself."

"Not really. I have absolutely no say in any of it, except who's a member of my wedding party. Seriously, if I had it to do over, I'd just elope," she explained. "So how are you? How are things going with Colin?"

"I'm doing well. Work is keeping me busy."  
"And Colin?" Rory reminded her.

Stephanie leaned in to answer Rory, but was interrupted by Finn's triumphant return to the table with an entire tray full of shots.

"Huntz! You got here late, you and Reporter Girl need to catch up!" he exclaimed as he set the tray down on the table.

"Ace?" Logan asked tentatively, "you up for the challenge?"

"Absolutely… not!"

"How bout just one extra for Finny?" Finn pleaded.

"Fine!" she agreed. So they lined up the shots, one for everyone at the table, two for Rory and three for Logan, so he could catch up.

"Lick the salt… drink the drink… suck the lime, got it?" Finn instructed as though none of them had ever done a tequila shot before.

"We're not total amateurs," Robert shot back at him.

"Glasses up everyone," Finn continued completely ignoring Robert. Once everyone had their glasses up he held his up a little further. "Cheers!"

"Cheers!" everyone chorused, then they all downed their shots. Rory and Logan went on to quickly have a round two, and Logan again for a round three.

"Are you happy Finn?" Rory asked while Logan finished his final shot.

"Yes Love," Finn told her.

"Good." Rory then turned her attention back to Stephanie and the conversation they'd been interrupted from. "So things with Colin?" she said again feeling a little warm and fuzzy from the tequila.

Stephanie sighed, "I'm beginning to wonder if he's ever going to propose."

"You've only been dating two years!" Rory said trying to help her find perspective.

"You and Logan are engaged, and you've been back together only a little more than a year," Stephanie shot back at her.

"It took Logan more than two years to propose the first time," Rory said trying to bolster her argument.

"I guess," Steph said glumly.

"Hey Colin," Rory called out to him. The tequila was affecting her more quickly than it used to.

"Yeah?" Colin called back in his drunken state.

"Don't you want to marry Steph?"

"Of course I do!" he slurred. Stephanie's face lit up with a smile.

"Then why the heck haven't you asked her?"

"What if she says no?" he said, suddenly recoiling in horror at the thought of rejection.

"If you don't ask you'll never know man," Logan chimed in.

"A single 'No' broke your heart and left you miserable for well over a year," Colin told him. "Are you telling me it was worth it?"

"That is all in the past," Logan told him, snaking his arm around Rory. "And if you must know, totally worth it."

Rory was shocked to hear that Logan found her initial denial now worth it. If she could go back and change one thing, it would probably be saying yes to him the first time, but then again, they both grew up a lot in their two years apart.

"So ask her then," Rory told Colin as Stephanie blushed deep red beside her.

"Stephanie Vanderbilt, will you marry me?" Colin asked drunkenly.

"Yes!" she squealed loudly.

"We should go to Vegas right now!" Logan said, with Finn nodding in agreement next to him. "Get these two married right away!"

"Okay!" Colin said. "Steph?"

"I'm in. Rory will you be my maid of honor?" she asked.

"Uh, sure!" Rory told her as she looked at Rosemary and Juliet hoping they weren't too upset.

"Rose, Jule, I want you two to be bridesmaids too!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"Of course!" they answered simultaneously.

"I'll call and get one of the Huntzberger planes ready immediately," Logan said. He'd had just as much to drink as the others, but seemed to be the most sober of the bunch. "How many of us are going?"

"You, me, Reporter Girl, Colin, Steph," Finn listed off, then looked at the rest of the table, "Any of the rest of you lot going?"

"Juliet and I are coming!" Rosemary added excitedly.

"I'm going," Seth added.

"I'm not. I have to work in the morning," Robert grumbled. Rory was slightly thankful for this, after Finn's Tarantino themed birthday bash, she always felt slightly awkward around Robert.

* * *

"So, an hour later we were all on one of the private Huntzberger jets headed off to Las Vegas," Rory told Logan.

"But that was still more than 24 hours ago. What happened after we got on the plane?" Logan asked.

"Well, you know Finn…"

* * *

_Later in the night, two days earlier_

"One for you, and one for you, and one for you," Finn continued as he passed around bottles of liquor to everyone on the plane.

"But Finn, I don't like vodka," Logan moaned. Finn snatched the bottle of scotch from Rory's hands and switched it with the bottle of vodka in Logan's.

"All better!" Finn said.

Rory opened her bottle of vodka and took a small sip. There was no way she was going to drink the whole bottle, mixers or not. She made herself a vodka tonic, then when the plane hit cruising altitude she made her way to the ladies room with her bottle, 'accidentally' dumping it down the sink, and sneakily refilling the bottle with water.

* * *

"You sneak!" Logan exclaimed. "Why didn't you do the same for me?"

"Scotch isn't clear babe," she told him with a smile. "Now do you want me to get on with the story?"

Logan nodded, then paused. "Can we order room service first? I could kill for some coffee!"

"Sure, but only coffee, we're meeting the others for brunch at 11:30."

He looked down at his watch and noticed it was already 10:30, "okay." He reached over to grab the phone and dial room service.

"You know, a couple of muffins wouldn't completely ruin brunch," Rory told him with a smile.

"That's my Ace," he smiled back, then placed the order. "Ten minutes… now where were we?"

* * *

_Yesterday morning_

"Viva Las Vegas, people!" Finn bellowed.

"Get your asses off my plane!" Logan added drunkenly.

The eight mostly drunken members of the Life and Death Brigade stumbled off the plane and into a waiting stretch limo.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

"Finn where are we staying?" Rory asked, being the only relatively sober person there.

"The Bellagio, love," Finn informed her as though she should have known better.

"Uhm, the Bellagio," she told the driver.

The drive was fairly uneventful until Stephanie realized that the limo had a sunroof, which she promptly opened and stood up through, and yelled "I'm getting married today!!!"

"I know you are sweetie," Rory said patiently as she pulled Steph back into the car. "But the rest of the world doesn't care, especially not at 4 o'clock in the morning.

Stephanie pouted on the remainder of the ride to the hotel, which luckily wasn't that far.

Some time between the airport and the hotel Rory realized that Finn wasn't nearly as drunk as he pretended to be. So when they got out of the car at the hotel she sidled up next to him. "So, Finny, what's the plan?"

He tried momentarily to feign innocence, but gave up. "You herd the girls through the spa and help Steph pick out a dress. I'll order tuxes for the guys and pretty much make sure they have a good time gambling. Lets meet at the chapel in the hotel at 6:30. I'll call ahead and book it."

"Okay," she told him, completely shocked that he had a plan.

"And love?" he started. She looked up at him. "Shhhh." He put his fingers to his mouth, then stumbled off in the direction of the guys. "Mates!!! Where's the black jack table!?"

Rory stopped at the counter and enquired about spa services. Apparently the spa didn't open until 7:00, so they had a few hours to kill. She checked everyone into suites with Logan's Black Card, and then turned to face her friends.

"So, girls! The spa doesn't open for another few hours. Do you want to gamble? Or take a nap?" she asked chipperly.

"Gamble!" Rosemary called. Man this girl was perfect for Finn.

"Nap!" Steph said tiredly. Her buzz finally wearing down.

"Bride wins!" Rory exclaimed, "nap it is!"

The four women stepped into the elevator and Rory punched the button for the 25th floor.

* * *

"You got a nap!" Logan said loudly. "Why I didn't I get a nap?"

"I don't think you wanted one… you were pretty happy to go off gambling with Finn."

* * *

Three hours later a call from the front desk woke them to remind them of the spa appointments, and soon, all of them were sitting in plush robes waiting for various treatments. "Rory Gilmore?" a voice called.

"Yes?" she said as she looked up.

"Right this way for your massage."

Rory followed the woman into a small room, and waited for her to leave so she could strip off her robe and climb onto the table. She took this one moment of privacy to text Finn. _You might want to sober Colin up a little, he'd hate to not remember his own wedding._

She slid her phone back into her robe pocket hoping Finn would get the message and climbed on the table for the massage.

After the wonderful 90 minute massage, Rory checked her phone to find a response from Finn. _Good call Love! What about your Mate?_

She was surprised that Finn was actually thinking about that. She really never gave him enough credit. _Let him be however he wants. Thanks though._

She smiled and dropped the phone back into her pocket, and headed for her next appointment.

Several hours later all four of the women had been buffed and polished, and were happily sipping champagne in the sauna.

"I need a dress!" Stephanie exclaimed, suddenly remembering her wedding.

Luckily for them, with a Black Card (or eight in this case) there's virtually nothing that can't be accomplished.

At 4:00 sharp, everyone had a dress that fit perfectly, including the bride, and they were all seated in a row to get their hair and make up done, drinking more champagne.

* * *

"What did I do all day?" Logan asked.

"I'm not really sure babe, you'll have to ask Finn and Colin," she told him.

"You don't know at all?" he asked.

"If you'd just wait I'll tell you what I know," she said with a devilish grin.

* * *

_Last night_

"It's 6:15," one of the stylists told them.

"We have to go, we have to be at the chapel at 6:30!" Rory said.

"I'm getting married," Stephanie sang.

"Yah you are!" Rosemary and Juliet cheered her on.

Rory paid the salon bill, and ushered the others towards the chapel. Standing outside was Finn in his perfect black tuxedo.

"Hello ladies!" he called in a wolfish manner.

"Hi Finny!" Rosemary said with a giggle.

"Ace!" Logan called as he came out of the chapel. "Where have you been? You look beautiful!"

"You look pretty good yourself there. You need me to tie your tie?" she asked.

"Sure," he told her, even though he could probably tie a bowtie in his sleep.

"So how was your day?" she asked as she stood in front of him. He did look incredible in his black tuxedo, his hair artfully mussed, smelling of scotch and aftershave.

"I won ten grand playing poker!" he told her with a grin.

"Congratulations!" she told him with a smile.

"I'm paying for the wedding dinner to celebrate," he added. She loved that he was so generous.

"I'm glad."

"I missed you," he slurred slightly. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the head. "Don't go away for that long again."

Before she could respond, Finn spoke up. "Okay people, it's time." Rory noticed that everyone was outside except Colin, who she assumed was standing at the alter. "Seth and Juliet go first, then me and Rosemary, then Logan and Reporter Girl, and Steph you follow Rory okay?" he directed.

"Got it!" they all chorused from around him.

* * *

"So did I buy everyone dinner?" Logan asked.

"Yep. And lots and lots of drinks. Hence the reason you don't remember anything."

"How was the wedding?" he asked curiously.

"I'll let Colin tell you about that," she said with a smile.

"What happened after the wedding?"

"We ate, and drank, and I don't remember any more," she told him. "I had a lot to drink last night too you know." She took another sip of the coffee that room service had delivered. "Now we should probably hit the shower, they're expecting us shortly."

"Okay," he said as he finished his last swallow of coffee. "You're going to join me aren't you?" He gave her a seductive wink as he headed towards the bathroom.

"Wild horses couldn't stop me," she told him as she got out of bed and followed him to the bathroom.

* * *

**AN: so there you have it, or part of it. Rory and Logan in Vegas for Colin's wedding. **

**What do you want to hear next? Pick the song and I'll tell you the story. Colin's side of this story? Logan asking Shira for the Huntzberger heirloom ring? Mitchum as a softie? You tell me. **

**For those of you that got here from Blood Is Thicker Than Water – I'm sorry to say that one really is done this time, but if you want to hear more about Rory and Logan – pick the next song in your review!**

**Thank you for reading! - S**


	4. Our House

**AN: Here is installment three, per the request of La Rose Noir here is Our House. **

**I don't own the song or the show**

* * *

_Our house was our castle and our keep, our house in the middle of our street - Madness _

At the age of 14, Gigi spent at lot of time in her room. She loved her room; it was the only one on third floor of their house in Stars Hollow. Her step mom had owned the house since before she was born, and pretty much refused to move, so her dad did the only thing he could think of, and added on. The second floor of the house was now as large as the first floor, and there was a third floor that had one bedroom and bathroom.

Her older sister Rory's bedroom was still on the first floor. It was technically the guest room, but it was still decorated exactly as Rory had left it when she left for college, Yale paraphernalia and books everywhere, and to be honest, the only people that ever stayed in that room were Rory and her husband, and sometimes their kids.

Her parents were on the second floor, along with her two brothers, and Gigi got the third floor all to herself. She loved it. She could sit for hours lost in her own thoughts and just watch the crazy world that was Stars Hollow go right on by.

Today she was thinking about how crazy her family was. She was the middle child, sort of. Her older sister Rory was 16 years older than she was, but she was still an older sister. Rory and her husband lived in New York with their two kids, but they came to visit a lot. As Gigi grew older she appreciated her older sister more and more. She was always there to talk to about everything, especially when their parents did crazy things. In addition to her older sister, she had two younger brothers, a lot younger. The next closest to her was Mark, technically Straub Marcus Hayden – but nobody called him that, and he was 5. The youngest was Richie, technically Richard Christopher Hayden – but the only person that called him Richard was Emily, and he was 4. Being little brothers, of course they drove her crazy, but she assumed that was par for the course.

Her parents were the craziest of them all. Her dad, Christopher, had been in love with Lorelai his entire life, but they'd had Rory when they were really young and couldn't put it together. Later, they tried again, but Gigi's mom, Sherri, got pregnant with her, and that screwed things up again. In a third attempt they actually got married, but that didn't work either. Finally when Gigi was 8 they worked it out for good, and shortly thereafter, Mark and Richie came along. They'd now been happily married for six years.

There were times when Gigi thought about leaving, running away to Paris to live with her mom, but those thoughts never lasted more than a few minutes. She tried it when she was 4 or 5 and it only lasted a few months. Sherri still called her and tried to convince her to move once or twice a year, but she never did. She did spend a few weeks there in the summer, but it was never home. Sometimes she felt left out at home in Stars Hollow, because she was the only one who wasn't Lorelai's child, but for the most part, sometime around her 10th birthday - when Lorelai threw her the coolest party ever, she got over it. Lorelai never treated her any different than others, so she figured she should stop feeling different. She and Lorelai had their own special relationship. She no longer called her Aunt Lorelai, like she had when she was little, but instead she called her Lore, just like her dad did. It was their special thing. Two people on earth called Lorelai Gilmore 'Lore', and she was one of them.

Today was one of those days, where she felt like running away. Her brothers were being obnoxious, her dad didn't have any time for her, and Lorelai was at work. She tried calling Rory, but she wasn't around. She talked to her brother-in-law for a few minutes, but his family was nothing like hers, and her niece and nephew were acting up, so he didn't have time for her either.

She sighed deeply when she hung up the phone, and contemplated calling her mother. She picked up the phone again and began to dial, stopping before she finished when she realized it was probably 11:00 at night in Paris. She set down the phone, grabbed her book and sat down in her window seat to read. Only five minutes later she put the book down and stood up… it was a beautiful summer afternoon, she shouldn't be reading inside. She scooped up a different book, a nice summery beach read instead of the classic she had been working on, and headed down the stairs.

* * *

Her father was in the living room, on the phone with someone, probably her grandmother from the tone of the conversation, so she walked out the front door to enjoy the sun.

She settled into the old porch swing that Lorelai refused to get rid of, that Christopher swore was going to collapse any second, and looked out into her yard.

Gigi Hayden watched her little brothers run around the front yard, chasing each other with squirt guns.

"Gigi," they yelled and came running towards her, guns a-blazing.

She put her hands up to cover her face, "Mark! Richie! Stop it right now!" she squealed.

The front door opened and her father came out, "what's going on out here?"

"Just squirt gun fights," Gigi explained. "For some reason they decided to attack me."

Christopher smiled at her, "I'll fix it," he whispered with a conspiratorial wink. Not more than a minute later he was chasing both boys around the yard spraying them with the garden hose.

They were so caught up in the action that they didn't notice a car pull into the driveway until the boys screamed "Mommy!" and went running towards Lorelai as she got out of the car. Gigi could see her dad try to stop, but he wasn't in time, Lorelai got drenched with the hose.

"Christopher!" she shouted, but Gigi could tell she wasn't really mad. She stayed on the porch laughing at her family.

"Hey Sweetie, how was your day?" Lorelai asked her as she climbed the steps towards the front door. Her dad was still chasing the boys.

"Not too bad Lore, how was yours?" Gigi asked in return.

"Michel was in a snit because Sookie put 13 blueberries in his pancake – you know, nothing new."

Gigi laughed at the thought of Michel in a snit. He was so funny that way.

"Incoming!" Christopher shouted from the yard, and they both looked up in time to see Mark and Richie both dripping wet streaking by Lorelai into the house. Lorelai sighed with a smile and followed them in.

"Hey Kid, since we're the only dry ones, you want to help me wrangle the others?" her dad asked her as he stepped onto the porch.

"Sure, I call Lore!" she said with a grin.

"I meant your brothers Smarty Pants. I think Lorelai can manage on her own," he said with a smile.

"Yeah, I know. I'll take Mark," she told him reluctantly. She abandoned her book on the swing and went inside to help her brother get cleaned up. Her house really was a mad house, but for the most part, she wouldn't change a moment of it.

* * *

**AN: This one is just a little slice of life set in the future. I hope you liked it! What would you like to see next?**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing! S**


	5. Dirty Little Secret

**AN: Per Blairbear014's request here is Dirty Little Secret.**

**I don't own the song or the show. **

* * *

_I'll keep you my dirty little secret, don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret - The All-American Rejects_

Shira ground the butt of her cigarette into the top of the brick bulkhead in her garden and instantly lit another one. She put it to her lips and inhaled deeply. She couldn't believe this was happening.

"Shira are you out here?" she heard Mitchum call from the terrace.

"Yes," she replied weakly hoping he wouldn't come out to talk to her, he hated it when she smoked.

"Are you smoking?" he asked.

"My son is about to propose to that girl! What do you think?" she shot back bitterly.

"All right, well let me know if you need another pack."

Smoking was Shira Huntzberger's small rebellion. It was the way she dealt with stress. She'd started smoking when she was a teenager, trying to impress the others and look cool. Now she was the perfect society wife, except for the smoking. Mitchum hated it, but she did it anyhow. Sometimes she felt that smoking was the only thing left in her life that was truly her. _Nobody _in society smoked, so she kept it a secret from everyone but her family. She tried to quit time and again, but sometimes being a Huntzberger was just too darn stressful.

She lit yet another cigarette, her fourth in the last fifteen minutes, and thought about the conversation she had with her son just hours before.

* * *

"Hey Mom," Logan called as he entered her parlor.

"Logan? What brings you here today?" she asked. She was surprised to see him. Logan never came home to visit. He occasionally made appearances for family events, and even those, Shira knew, came only when Honor begged him, but he never visited. It had been at least six months since she'd seen him. Maybe more.

"I, uh, came to see how you are," he told her. He was lying and she knew it. People could say that she didn't know her son, didn't know about his life, his business, or his antics, but she knew when he was lying. His tell hadn't changed in the last 20 some years.

"I'm fine Dear. How are you?" She decided not to call him on the lie and just see where he was going.

"I'm doing well."

"What brings you to Connecticut?" she asked, knowing he hadn't spent much time on the East Coast since he started his business venture in Palo Alto.

"The Gilmore's vow renewal anniversary party," he said firmly.

She winced. She'd forgotten that the party was this weekend, she'd better find a new dress. "Oh that's right. I'm surprised you'd want to go to that."

"I don't see why you're surprised. Rory and I got back together almost a year ago," he told her.

"What?" she said weakly. How did she miss that bit of gossip?

"Didn't Honor tell you? Or Dad?" Logan was truly surprised that she didn't know.

"No. Neither one of them said a thing! They both knew?" Shira was mortified. How dare they not tell her!

"Well yeah. Honor helped get us back together," Logan started.

"And your father?"

"We ran into him at a newspaper event in California a month or so ago," he explained.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked quietly.

"Right, because that's a conversation I want to have," Logan said sarcastically. "Hi Mom, I'm just calling to tell you I'm back with the woman of my dreams, you know, the one you hate."

"Logan-" she started, but he cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it Mom. I came here to ask you for Grandmother Huntzberger's ring. I was trying to do things right."

"You're going to propose to her? Again?" Shira exclaimed. She couldn't believe her son would put himself in this position again.

"It's different this time." She knew he was right. It was different, the first time he'd gone and purchased his own ring.

"Sure it is," Shira said snidely. "If she says 'yes' then you can have the ring."

"No. That ring is mine to give to my wife. You have no control over that part of it. I can just go get it from the safe myself. I was just being polite in asking you to hand it over." Logan was seething with anger; he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.

He was right of course, when Michtum's mother died, that ring was set aside for Logan's bride, but Shira always assumed she'd get to pick that bride. Shira sighed in resignation. "Logan!" she called out to him. But he didn't answer.

* * *

She sighed and took another puff on her cigarette. _Why couldn't he just marry that lovely Fallon girl? _she wondered to herself.

She didn't know why she didn't like Rory Gilmore. She just didn't. Rory was a perfectly lovely girl… or so she was told. She had excellent manners, she was well bred, and she made Logan happy. She began to pace in her garden trying to figure out why she didn't like Rory.

Was it just because Shira didn't pick her for Logan?

Was it because Rory was old money? (Doubly old money – Gilmore and Hayden!) While the she was new money? (Or to be honest – she was no money, and Mitchum was new money, comparatively.)

It wasn't like the girl was unfortunate looking. She was no supermodel, but she was a classic beauty. Those blue eyes of hers would be adorable on a little kid with Logan's blond hair.

Was it because she worked? This one gave Shira cause to pause in her pacing. She respected people who worked. She just didn't understand why people who didn't have to, chose to work. As soon as she'd said "I do," Shira quit her job. That was how it was supposed to work. She didn't marry Mitchum solely for his money, but it certainly didn't hurt the process.

Shira finally decided that she didn't like her because Rory wanting to keep her career, which she established without Logan's help, was just another way of proving to the world that she, contrary to Shira's loudly expressed opinions, was not a gold digger. (And Shira hated to be wrong!) Rory loved Logan for himself and couldn't give a damn about his last name or the size of his trust fund.

Rory would never have children that barely spoke to her. She would never have a Dirty Little Secret like smoking. She would be the perfect wife, society or otherwise, without any guidance or influence from Shira.

She lit her last cigarette and sighed with determination, maybe she could learn to like Rory, and maybe Rory could teach _her_ a thing or two.

* * *

**AN: Hope you enjoyed this installment. Next up is Misery Business! Anything else you'd like to see, please let me know. I'm really enjoying being able to write different bits about different characters and set in different times.**

**I'm working on Chapter 11 of Winning Back The Gilmore Girls - that should hopefully be up this weekend! **

**Thanks for reading and please review - S**


	6. Misery Business

**AN: Per DramaQueen1103's request, here is Misery Business. **

**I don't own the show or the song. (No surprise there.)**

* * *

_Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change – Paramore_

April Nardini had been dating Freddy Brown since freshman year. They started dating in the fall, and then she had to move away. They did the long distance thing the rest of that year, and rekindled their relationship when she came to visit her dad in Stars Hollow for the summer. Some how he convinced her, to convince her mother that she needed, no wanted, to stay in Connecticut with Luke.

It was now the spring of her sophomore year, and she and Freddy were going strong, as long as he didn't get to close to Luke, who still called him Freddy Freddy Apple Brown Betty and was fiercely overprotective.

"April, it's not what you think!" Freddy pleaded with her outside the diner.

"She's the biggest slut in our class Freddy!" April shouted, her face flushed with anger. Not thirty minutes ago she caught Freddy with his arm around Missy Stone, in her too short mini skirt and too tiny tube top, and she was whispering seductively in his ear.

"She was asking me to help her with her biology homework!" he shouted back.

"Sure. And somehow that required you to put your arm around her and bring her closer, and her to whisper the request in your ear!"

"She has laryngitis! I couldn't hear her otherwise!" Freddy's face was red with anger as well.

"Ha! You're a bigger idiot than I thought if you fell for that one!"

"It's true!" he told her. "At least I thought it was true," he added. She turned on her heel and headed towards the door of the diner. "April!"

"I never want to see you again!" she screamed and slammed the door.

* * *

Luke looked up from his position at the counter to see his daughter angrily storm past him and head up the stairs.

April sat down on her bed in her dad's apartment and fumed with anger. How dare he treat her like that? It was times like this that she missed her mom the most. She picked up the phone to call her in New Mexico but stopped when she heard the door to the apartment open.

"You okay?" her dad asked hesitantly as he poked his head in the door.

"I'll be fine Dad."

"Want to tell me what that was all about?"

"Nope." There were some things that a girl could never discuss with her father, and this was one of them.

"All right, well tell me if you need anything."

"Thanks Dad." He left the room and she flopped back on the bed to call her mother.

* * *

The phone rang three times before her mother picked up.

"Hello?" Anna answered.

"Hi Mom," April said, trying to hold herself together.

"What's wrong baby? Is it Luke?" her mother asked. She'd been living with Luke for almost nine months now, and never had a problem, but every time she called her mom, Anna always assumed Luke had done something.

"No Dad's fine," April reassured her.

"Then what is it?" As if Luke were the only possible cause of grief in her teenage daughter's life.

"It's Freddy," she said angrily.

"Uh-oh," Anna started. "What'd he do?"

"Oh Mom," April whined, then launched into her tale of woe. After she'd finished her mother was silent for a few moments. "Well?"

"What if she really did want his help April?" Anna asked her.

"She didn't," April insisted.

"How do you know?"

"She doesn't care about grades. She hasn't for years!"

"And she couldn't possibly change?"

"No!" April said resolutely.

"April…" Anna warned.

"Fine. She could have changed. But I doubt it."

"Don't you think you should give Freddy a chance to explain?"

"He did explain!"

"Okay, aside from your opinions about Missy Stone's character, do you have any reason to doubt Freddy?" Anna asked.

"Well… no."

"I think you need to trust Freddy, at least until he gives you a reason not to."

"But…" April started.

"I'm not telling you to blindly follow everything he says, but remember it's _innocent until proven guilty_ not the other way around."

"If that's the case, then why do you assume that every time I call it's because Dad's done something wrong?" April asked trying to change the subject.

"That's not fair April. I've known your dad a lot longer than you've known Freddy," Anna told her.

"And Dad's never done anything to upset me!" April said defensively.

"April, that's enough. You don't know the whole story, and we're not discussing this any further," her mother said sharply. "Now, you're 15. You're going to do what you want to do about Freddy. I'm just telling you to use your scientific nature and don't leap to conclusions."

"Whatever Mom." April sighed and rolled her eyes. "I've gotta go."

"I love you April," Anna said in closing.

"I love you too Mom." April hung up the phone and pushed herself off the bed.

* * *

She walked into the diner and sat at one of the bar stools. She opened the donut display case and helped her self to a chocolate cake donut with frosting and sprinkles, and waited for Luke to come talk to her. She picked at the sprinkles and waited to be scolded for spoiling her dinner.

"Did talking to your mom help?" Luke asked as he stopped in front of her on the other side of the counter.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"If it was anyone else you'd still be on the phone," he said with a small smile, knowing his daughter's talkative nature. "So did it help?"

"Not really," she said with a sigh.

"Oh." Luke looked down at his feet, then back up at her. "Can I get you something to drink with that donut?"

"Hot chocolate with whipped cream?" she asked hopefully.

"I suppose," he said, even though she knew he didn't approve of all of that sugar. He walked into the kitchen to get her drink and she continued to pick at her donut.

He set the cup of steaming cocoa in front of her, and turned to walk away again. "Hey Dad?" she called after him.

"Yeah?" He stopped and turned to face her again.

"How do you know when to trust someone?"

"Aww geez April," he stuttered. "Is this about a boy?"

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"Do you have a reason not to trust him?" Luke asked suspiciously, and she could tell he would pounce at the hint of trouble.

"No. Well… just what I saw with my own eyes. But he swears it wasn't what it looked like," April found herself defending Freddy to her father.

Luke looked at her and ran his hands over his backwards facing baseball cap. "Uh, I guess, things aren't always what they seem. You shouldn't jump to conclusions without all the facts," he told her.

She sighed. "That's basically what Mom said."

"Well, your mom is a smart lady," Luke said.

April hopped of her barstool and took her cup of cocoa with her. "I'm going to go call Freddy," she told him with a smile. "Thanks Dad."

"No problem kid." He ruffled her hair as she walked by him to get up the stairs.

* * *

Her heart raced as the phone rang, and she wondered if he'd even answer his call.

"April, hey!" Freddy said when he picked up the phone after the fourth ring.

"I'm, uh, sorry," she told him quickly.

"Me too. I didn't think about how bad it would look when I put my arm around her. I just really couldn't hear her," he explained.

"I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. So are you going to help her?"

"Nah. There are plenty of other people at school that can tutor her in biology. I happen to think that some people never change. I don't know what she wants but I'm fairly certain it's more than biology help."

"Exactly!" April said in agreement.

"So, do _you_ want to study together this afternoon?" Freddy asked hopefully.

"I'll meet you at the Stars Hollow library in 20 minutes!"

* * *

**AN: This one was completely random. I have no idea where it came from, or why the song inspired it, but there you have it. I hope you enjoy it, and I'd like to know what you'd like to see next!**

**S**


	7. Sing For Absolution

**AN: This one is per Blairbear014's request. It's Muse's Sing For Absolution. **

**I don't own the song or the show. **

**In addition to the song, this was inspired by DramaQueen1103's story The Other Gilmore Girl. **

* * *

_I will be singing, falling from your grace – Muse_

It's been five days since she told her parents she was pregnant. Four days since the Gilmores and the Haydens got together to plan out the rest of her life, and Christopher's as well. And it's been three days since she tore that all to shreds by refusing to go along with 'The Plan' they put together.

Now it's been two days since she's spoken a word to her parents. For once Emily is allowing her to eat in her room, not wanting to see her either. Of course she's grounded, no going out except for school, and no phone calls. Not even Christopher. (Although, he's equally grounded, so he can't call her either.) She lays on her bed, reading A Brave New World for her English class, and wishing she could live in a utopian society. She would certainly be an Alpha.

There's a knock at her door, and she glances at the clock. It's 6:30. She assumes it's the maid with her dinner, so she gets up to answer the door. Her nose is still in the book so she doesn't see that it's not the maid on the other side of the door.

"You can set the tray over there," Lorelai says, gesturing to her desk.

"Excuse me?" Her mother's voice forces her head up from the book.

"I, uh, thought you were the maid with dinner," Lorelai says quickly.

"No, I am not the maid. I am here to tell you that if you wish to eat dinner tonight, you must join us in the dining room. Two days of catering to your anger is enough." Lorelai sighs; they wouldn't really withhold dinner from their pregnant daughter would they? "Dinner is a 7:00 sharp Lorelai, I expect you there and dressed."

She slams the door as her mother walks away and throws the book she's reading on her bed. Part of her wants to remain stubbornly silent and refuse to join them for dinner, but the pregnant part controls her stomach, which growls at the merest mention of food, and she's suddenly starving. She stomps into her closet to find something suitable to wear to dinner. Apparently the jeans and sweatshirt she's wearing are insufficient. She pulls out a sweater and one of the new skirts her mother bought her the day after she told them she was pregnant. That was the only reason she told them, she could no longer fit into her clothes, nor could she let them out any further to accommodate her expanding waistline. She shrugs out of her jeans and pulls on the skirt. As her form of rebellion she refuses to put stockings on, and shoves her bare feet into her loafers. She pulls on the sweater and leaves her hair hanging down her back in messy curls. It looks perfectly tousled and will drive her mother nuts.

* * *

At precisely 6:59 she walks down the stairs and into the dining room, sliding into her spot at the table just as her mother opens her mouth to yell for her.

"Mom, Dad," she says sullenly.

"It's nice of you to join us for dinner Lorelai," her father says.

"Like I had a choice," she mumbles.

"Well either way," Richard says as the maid sets a salad in front of him.

Dinner is a quiet affair. Lorelai refusing to speak and her parents talking to each other as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Dessert and coffee are finally served, and Lorelai takes a long awaited sip of her coffee and sighs with contentment.

"What are you doing?" Emily asks sharply.

"Drinking my coffee," she says slowly, wondering how that is not already apparent.

"You can't drink coffee, it's bad for the baby!" Emily says. This is the first mention of the baby that isn't followed by a panicked look on her mother's face, or a comment about how society will react to the news. Lorelai looks at her mother and picks up her cup and deliberately takes another sip, she's done her research and she knows that since she's down to one cup a day, there will be no harm to the baby. "Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, put that coffee cup down this instant!" Emily yells standing up out of her seat, as if she would forcibly come remove the cup from Lorelai's hand.

"Fine," Lorelai says coolly, "the cup was almost empty anyhow." She pushes back her chair and stands up to leave the table.

"Where do you think you're going?" Emily asks.

"Back to my room."

"Your father and I would like to speak to you in the living room first," she demands.

"Fine."

* * *

She follows her parents into the living room and takes a seat on the couch, waiting for her father to pour drinks, and for both of her parents to assume their traditional 'yell at Lorelai' positions. Her mother sits in her usual chair, and her father stands behind her mother, with his hand on her shoulder: a show of support.

"So Lorelai, what are your plans once the baby is born?" her mother starts. Great, the Spanish Inquisition.

"I don't know. I'll finish school, then get a job I guess," she tells them hesitantly.

"How will support the baby without a college education?" her father asks.

"I don't know Dad, I thought I'd rob a bank," she says smartly.

"Lorelai!" he scolds.

"This wouldn't be a concern if you would just marry Christopher like we planned," Emily adds.

"We're too young to get married! It would never work! Can't you see that?" Lorelai says trying to control her temper.

"When you get pregnant you get married!" Richard says resolutely.

"Well I'm sorry I got pregnant, but there's nothing I can do about that now."

"Which is why you should get married," Emily says for what seems like the hundredth time.

"We're NOT getting married!" she yells at her parents.

"Well you need to do something Lorelai!" Emily yells back at her. "Do you always have to be so stubborn?"

"No. Do you always have to be such a bitch?" she shoots back, then quickly slaps her hand over her mouth realizing what she just said.

"Lorelai! You do not need to speak to your mother like that!" her father yells at her.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.

"Sorry? You're sorry?" Emily shouts. Lorelai can see the anger rising in her mother's cheeks, her complexion is becoming redder by the minute, and she knows her mother isn't just talking about being called a bitch, but the situation on the whole.

"I said I'm sorry, what more do you want?" she shouts at her mother.

"I want you to fix it Lorelai. I want you to do the right thing!" Emily shouts back at her.

"What's right for you isn't what's right for me," she screams, "why can't you understand that?"

"Lorelai, calm down. All that screaming can't be good for the baby," Richard interjects.

"God! Can't you just love me?" Lorelai begs, tears streaming down her face.

Emily cracks first, she rushes to Lorelai's side and pulls her into her arms. "We do love you sweetheart. We just want what's best for you."

Lorelai sobs harder. "We'll try to be more open minded, just please stop crying," Richard says as he approaches her offering her his handkerchief.

"Daddy!" Lorelai whimpers as she throws her arms around his neck. "I'm scared."

"I know darling, I know. We'll work it out. Some how we'll all work it out together," he says as he pats her back.

She takes a deep breath, and as her dad pats her back and her mom strokes her hair, she thinks maybe they're right. Maybe it will all work out.

* * *

**AN: This is my first attempt in this tense, as well as at Lorelai as a teenager… I hope you liked it okay! **

**I also don't own A Brave New World – Aldous Huxley does.**

**Thanks to DramaQueen1103 for reading this ahead of time for me, and catching my error in timing! **

**Please read and review, and suggest! - S**


	8. 1985

**AN: Here is Bowling For Soup's 1985. This is set when Rory is probably 11 or 12. I don't own the show or the song. (Well I own a couple of season of the show on DVD and I own the song in MP3, but that's besides the point).**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_Where's the mini skirt made of snakeskin? And who's that other guy singing in Van Halen? – Bowling For Soup_

Dinner at Luke's was unusually quiet tonight. Lorelai pulled out all the stops in outrageous conversation, but none of them worked. Rory sat across the table from her utterly distracted, staring out the window and mindlessly munching on her French fries.

"Rory what's going on? Are you okay?" Lorelai asked, starting to get truly concerned.

"Nothing's going on, I'm fine," Rory replied in a tone that didn't give much reassurance.

Lorelai sighed, and signaled Luke for the check. "What, no dessert?" he said in a surprised tone when he approached the table.

"Not tonight," Lorelai told him. She left a twenty on the table, and pushed her chair back to stand up.

Rory looked up at her, startled. "Where are we going?"

"Home. Dinner's over."

"Oh, okay." Lorelai looked down at Rory's plate, just to double check that dinner was in fact over. The burger was gone, as were the fries, and the coffee cup was empty. Something was going on with her daughter, and she was going to figure out what it was.

The twosome walked out the door, and started their walk back home. Lorelai opened her mouth several times to say something, but the words wouldn't come. She didn't know where to start.

* * *

They were just over half way home when Rory stopped abruptly, turning to face her mother.

"Mom?" her daughter started.

"Yeah Sweets?"

"Is your life what you thought it would be?" she asked seriously.

"Yes and no."

"Well that's not an answer!" her daughter exclaimed indignantly.

"I guess you have to look at it from a specific point in time. In 1985, did I think I'd be here today? Well no, but I was still holding out hopes of being the fifth Bangle. How do you think I got rid of the pregnancy weight?"

"You can't sing though," Rory reminded her.

"Honey, there are several recording artists out there that can't sing."

"So are you upset with the way your life turned out? Bangles aside of course," she said turning the conversation back to the serious side.

"Of course not. I have more than I could ever have wished for, I have you." She pulled her daughter into a hug.

"Okay," Rory replied as though that seemed to settle whatever it was she'd been thinking over.

"What's going on kid? Where's this coming from?" she asked.

"No where." Lorelai knew Rory was lying.

"Rory," she started warily, hating to pull the Mom card on something like this, but needing to know what was happening.

"Just some kids at school," Rory said trying to be nonchalant.

"What kids at school?"

"Jana Anderson," Rory said quietly.

Lorelai sighed. Jana Anderson was the bane of her daughter's existence. "What did Jana say today?"

"That your life would be so much better with out me and that you probably wished I'd never been born," Rory whispered. Lorelai could see the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Rory that is complete crap! Don't ever listen to Jana Anderson. I have half a mind to call Jana's mother and give her a piece of my mind," Lorelai started ranting, but stopped suddenly when she realized she wasn't doing anything to reassure her daughter. "My life could never be better with out you, and never for even one second have I ever wished that you weren't born!"

"Really?" Rory asked tentatively.

"Really. There may have been times that I wished you would have come along a little later in my life… but there has never been a time where I wished you were never there at all."

"Not even when you had to tell Grandma and Grandpa about me?"

"Not even then."

"Okay." Rory smiled, and Lorelai could tell that the crisis had passed.

"So what brought on Jana's ire today?"

"An A on the math test."

"How did Jana do?"

"B minus," Rory told her with a grin.

"Some people try to hurt other people's feelings just to make themselves feel better," Lorelai explained.

"I know."

"I know you do. I just thought I'd remind you."

"Thanks," Rory said. "So the 5th member of The Bangles huh?"

"Yep. I used to practice their dance routines while I cleaned rooms at the Inn."

"No way."

"I used to dance them with you in my arms when you were being fussy, too," Lorelai continued.

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, suddenly embarrassed at the thought of being danced around the room to The Bangles.

"Oh yeah. You could walk like an Egyptian before you could run."

"I don't believe you." Rory gave her a dubious look.

"I can still do the dances if you want proof," Lorelai said, hoping she didn't have to prove it. She could remember the dances, but in order to fully appreciate the dance, she'd need to don some leggings and a miniskirt and rat her hair, and she didn't feel like doing that.

"Nah, that's okay."

"Oh good, the costume is just too much work today." Lorelai wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulder and they continued towards home. "Since we didn't really get to enjoy dinner, do you want to stop at Weston's for dessert?"

"Well it is Tuesday, so that means they have-"

"- red velvet cake!" they said together.

"To the bakery!" Rory exclaimed and turned in the direction of the delicious red velvet cake.

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this little trip down made up memory lane. I completely made up Jana Anderson. I don't own The Bangles either.**

**I'd love to know what you'd like to see next!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing - S**


	9. What It Takes

**AN: Here is What It Takes – Aerosmith. Blairbear014 requested this originally, but I'm not quite sure if it'll go the way she wants it to. Reading Miguel51's Kismet has me in a Rory/Marty mood, so we'll see where this goes. **

**As usual, I don't own the show, the song or anything else. **

* * *

_Tell me what it takes to let you go, tell me how the pain's supposed to go – Aerosmith_

Marty Harrison had been an advertising executive for the last three years. He never thought that advertising was the job he'd end up doing after four years of hard work at Yale, but he actually liked the work, and it paid well enough that he could afford to live in New York, pay back his student loans, and still have a life.

Tonight he was enjoying a launch party for a new magazine that his company was promoting. He looked around the room. There were people everywhere. Several of his colleagues, the top brass from the magazine, some of New York's beatnik society – authors, musicians and artists – hoping to be featured in the new magazine, and several other industry types. He wasn't even sure why he was there, the magazine wasn't one of his products, but he was enjoying himself. He grabbed another glass of champagne of the tray a waitress was carrying by him and joined a conversation with his boss and her husband.

"So do you think this magazine will be a success?" her husband asked.

"Of course it will! This is New York City, the capital of cool, this magazine will be on the cutting edge of entertainment, and those that want to be in the know, will read it," she replied. "Don't you think Marty?"

"Of course. I think it'll be huge, especially outside of New York, where people can't just hop down to Greenwich Village and check out what's happen-" Marty stopped abruptly when a familiar laugh floated across the room. He glanced around the room, it couldn't be her, could it?

"Marty?" his boss started, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, I thought I heard someone I knew. Any way, I was saying that those without access to the creative regions of New York will love this magazine," he rushed to get the words out and continued to look around to see if he could find the source of the laugh.

"I couldn't agree more!" his boss agreed. Her husband nodded along.

"Excuse me," Marty said. He walked towards a table to set his champagne glass down. He picked up a stuffed mushroom and heard the laugh again. He swiveled his head towards the sound.

He hadn't seen her in years, and yet there she was out of the blue, not more than twenty feet away from him, chatting happily with one of his colleagues. She looked the same as always.

He blinked twice to make sure she was still there, he'd randomly thought he'd seen her before a couple times, so he wanted to be doubly sure she was really there before he approached her. Convinced that she was, he walked over to her.

"Rory?" he started tentatively?

She spun to see him, "Marty! Is that you? What are you doing here?" She hugged him firmly and he inhaled deeply. It'd been 5 years since the Lucy debacle and she still smelled exactly the same.

"I work here, what are you doing here?" he asked when she finally let him go.

"I'm here with Logan. He seems to have business everywhere," she replied. He looked down and saw the gigantic sparkler of a ring on her all important finger, and felt like someone punched him in the stomach. He began to wonder if he'd ever get over her.

The person she was talking to excused himself, and left the two old friends alone to catch up.

"So you and Logan, huh? Still together after all these years?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but knowing that he had to ask.

"Well, yes and no," she said quietly.

He looked at her quizzically but didn't say anything.

"Back together after all these years is more correct."

"Okay."

"So how about you? Are you married? I haven't seen you since…" she trailed off and blushed, so he was pretty sure she remembered the Lucy dinner just as well as he did.

"Recently single," he lied. He was single, it just wasn't recent. He'd had relationships since Lucy, some of them were even good ones, but he hadn't felt strongly enough about any girl to completely wipe away the memory of Rory. Rory smiled at him and nodded, accepting his answer.

"I'm sure some lucky girl will snatch you up quickly enough," she told him.

He smiled back her, "So," he started, picking up her left hand and tapping her ring, "how's married life?"

"Not married yet, just engaged." Of course she was just engaged, the rock on her finger could probably be sold to feed a small country for a year, but there weren't enough diamonds present to be considered married. By the time she was married, she'd probably have enough diamonds on her finger to feed the entire continent of Africa.

"When's the big day?"

"June 24th," she said wistfully, removing her hand from his and twisting the ring around her finger.

"That's just around the corner!"

"Don't remind me."

"Trouble in paradise?" he asked trying not to sound sarcastic.

"No, it's just-" Rory was cut off by a booming voice.

"Hey Ace, there you are!" Logan said loudly, finding his way to her side.

"Here I am. You remember Marty right?" she said.

"Yeah, yeah, sure! Marty, how are you? What are you doing here?" Logan asked.

"I work for Jones and Taylor, the advertising firm for the magazine," he said quickly. He had an irrational urge to punch Logan in the face, having a suspicion that no matter what he did, he would always be the guy that made killer margaritas to Logan.

"Cool man." A server passed by, and Marty watched as Logan set down his empty scotch glass and asked for a refill.

"So what are you doing here?" Marty asked in return.

"We invested in the magazine," Logan told him. Marty assumed 'we' was Huntzberger Publishing Group, but didn't really care to investigate any further.

"What are you up to Rory?" Marty asked after a moment of silence, changing the focus of the conversation.

"I write for the Times," she said. Marty tried to remember if that was a Huntzberger publication or not.

"Congrats! Isn't that what you've always wanted?"

"Yep."

"Now I'm trying to convince her to write for this new magazine, it needs someone with her fresh edge," Logan interjected.

"Logan, I'm happy at the Times," she responded wearily. Marty could tell they'd had this discussion before.

"You'd be happier as your own boss," he retorted.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't be happier being-" Rory was cut off as Logan's cell phone rang.

"Sorry, I've got to take this. If the server comes back with my scotch will you grab it?"

"Of course," she told him as he walked away talking on his phone. As soon as his back was turned she rolled her eyes.

"That happen a lot?" Marty asked. She looked at him darkly, and he took the hint. "So you wouldn't be happier being what? A circus clown? An entertainment writer?" He wanted her to finish her statement from earlier.

"I wouldn't be happier being other people's boss."

"You were editor of the Yale Daily News," Marty reminded her.

"Yes, but I didn't own a share of it."

"Oh. I thought Logan meant HPG when he said 'we.'" He blushed at his error.

"Nope, the we in this case is Logan Huntzberger and Rory Gilmore. Logan's not with HPG." Rory's voice was filled with pride that Logan was on his own. "But shhh, we bought it in a trust, and would rather keep it a secret. Well, at least I would," she amended.

He always thought he and Rory were similar creatures, they both worked hard and studied hard at Yale, they had good friends, but weren't necessarily into the whole high society thing. He thought they were both on the same socio-economic level, and now here she was buying a large share of a magazine. "I guess working at the Times has been good to you," he said. She merely shrugged. Was this the same girl he remembered rooting around in her change purse trying scrape up enough money for a coffee?

"So what do you do here Marty?" she asked.

"I'm an advertising exec."

"Would I know any of your work?"

"Possibly," he started, then listed off a bunch of campaigns he'd worked on.

"Oh wow! You're good!" she told him. She tipped back her champagne glass and finished it off, then made a small face of disgust. "Do you know where I could get some coffee?"

She was the same girl. "Not in here, but there's a coffee shop next door. Want to go grab a cup?" he asked, unsure if she'd say yes.

"Why not?" she responded with a smile.

"Don't you need to get Logan's scotch for him?" Marty asked trying again to keep the sarcasm from his voice. He looked around for Logan, who was in the corner of the room on the phone, and the server, who was nowhere to be found.

"Logan's a big boy, he's been tracking down his own scotch for years. Besides, he'll understand. He knows about my addiction."

"Alright then, right this way," Marty said as he offered her his arm and headed towards the exit. She grinned at him and took his arm, letting him lead her a way from the party and her fiance, towards her favorite addiction.

Maybe the reason he couldn't let her go yet was because he wasn't supposed to.

* * *

**AN: It's a little different. I hope you like it. Let me know what you'd like to see next!**

**Thanks for reading, and please review! - S**


	10. Here I Go Again

**AN: Here's the next one: Here I Go Again – Whitesnake. I've been seeing a lot of Trory's lately, and felt like doing this one. **

**This one is set post Dean the second time and post Jess's disappearance – prior to graduation at Chilton.**

**I don't own the band, or the song. **

* * *

_I've made up my mind, I ain't wasting no more time – Whitesnake_

He entered the hallowed halls of Chilton and wondered if she would remember him. He'd been such an ass to her when she'd started here that he wouldn't be surprised if she blocked him from her memory all together.

A bell rang indicating that classes done for the day, and students began to pour out of various classrooms. He wanted to duck into the restroom and hide until he was officially reenrolled for classes, but he wasn't quick enough.

"Tristan?" he heard a familiar voice call out to him before he could move. It was the same voice he'd heard countless times in his dreams, it sounded as angelic as he remembered.

"Hey Mare, I'm back. Did you miss me?"

"The name is Rory!" she shot back instantly. "It's four letters, two syllables, not hard to remember."

He stood still, letting her approach him. "I know. I just like to watch your cheeks turn pink when you get angry." He smirked at her, and opened his arms for a hug, not quite sure how she'd respond. She looked at him curiously, then walked into his arms.

"It's been a long time. How've you been? When did you get back? Are you back for good? What are you doing _here_?" The questions rolled of her tongue a mile a minute in her familiar manner, and he realized exactly how much he missed her.

"That's a lot of questions Mare," he started, "do you have a time for a cup of coffee? It'll take a while to explain it all."

"I always have time for coffee," she said with a smile.

"Shall we then?" he asked as he extended his arm towards her to guide her out of the building. She wasn't moving, so he looked down at her to find a suspicious expression on her face. He couldn't help it, he laughed out loud. "I was just planning on taking you to the coffee shop around the corner. Sheesh."

"All right," she said finally, letting him lead her out into the parking lot.

He led her towards his Porshe, and opened the passenger side door for her.

"I thought you said the coffee shop was just around the corner."

"I've been deprived of my baby for the better part of a year now, I'm driving her every chance I get," he explained.

She looked around the parking lot before climbing into the car, no doubt making sure someone saw her leaving with him, in case he decided not to bring her back. "Relax Mare, I'm not going to kidnap you. Besides, I'm sure the majority of the student body is going to be gossiping about seeing you get into my car."

"That wasn't why I was looking around. I know you won't kidnap me. I was looking for Paris."

"Why were you looking for Paris?" he asked, confused. The last he knew Paris hated Rory. "I thought you two hated each other."

"We've got a tentative truce going. I just hope this doesn't screw it up."

"How would _this_ screw it up?" He was generally curious. "Last I heard she was seeing someone. Hell, last I heard, you were seeing someone."

"You been keeping tabs on us DuGrey?" she asked with a smile.

"Not really. You know, just the typical Hartford Gossip. My grandmother tries to connect with me by telling me about my former classmates." He started the car and backed out of the parking spot, heading for the street.

"Ah. Well, she's right about Paris, she's been seeing Jamie since summer, but then again, you never know what will set Paris off. She's wrong about me though. Jess took off for parts unknown a while ago," she told him wistfully.

"I thought Bag Boy's name was Dean?"

"It was. You don't think it's possible for me to get more than one boyfriend?" she asked sharply. He glanced over at her, surprised to see that she was actually hurt by his unintended insinuation.

"That's not what I meant. Of course you could have a million boyfriends if you wanted them. It's just that when I left, you and Bag Boy seemed to be going hot and heavy."

She seemed appeased by this answer, and they spent the rest of the short drive in silence.

* * *

They arrived at the coffee shop, and he parked quickly, but not quickly enough. "Hurry up Tristan, I need my coffee," she said heading towards the entrance while he locked the car.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he told her, jogging toward the door. He opened the door and the smell of fresh roasted coffee smacked him in the face. He wasn't a huge coffee fan so he tried not to grimace at the overwhelming smell. Rory, on the other hand, had such a blissful look on her face that she looked intoxicated.

"Mmmm," she moaned, "I love the smell of fresh roasted coffee." From this moment on he would love the smell of fresh roasted coffee as well, it would forever be associated with Rory and the look of sheer bliss.

They took their place in the very short line, and soon enough it was his turn to order. "I'll have a tall drip, with room," he told the barista, "and whatever she's having," he added pointing to Rory.

"I can get my own coffee you know."

"I know you can, but today it's my treat."

"Fine. But I'll buy next time," she told him, then turned her attention to the barista, "Can I get a venti white chocolate caramel mocha, with an extra shot?"

"Of course," the barista said.

Tristan looked at her with awe, "what on earth did you just order?"

"Coffee," she said with a tone that implied the word duh, to the end of her sentence.

"No where in that order did I hear the word coffee," he replied.

"It's implied in both mocha and extra shot."

He gave the cashier a 10 dollar bill, grabbed his drip and headed towards an empty table. He sat down, pulled the lid off his coffee, and added cream and sugar, then waited for Rory's coffee to be ready and for her to join him. He took the extra moment to try and figure out how much he wanted to tell her. He looked up when he heard the chair across from him slide across the hardwood floors.

"Alright DuGrey, enough stalling. Time to answer my questions," she said with a smile.

"Okay, what was the first one again?"

"Tristan!" she exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Right, how've I been?" he repeated her first question, then paused to think about it for a second. "I've been okay. Military school's no fun, but it's probably been good for me. Made some friends, learned some discipline, all that stuff."

"I'm glad then," she replied, acknowledging what he said, but not wanting to disrupt his flow.

"Let's see, what's next? Oh yes, when did I get back? I got back two days ago. I spent yesterday and most of today getting stuff straightened up at home. I am back for good – at least that's my intention. And what was the last one?"

"What were doing at Chilton?" she reminded him.

"You're a smart girl that one should be fairly obvious," he said with a grin. She shot him a dirty look and he decided just to answer her question. "I have to finish high school somewhere. What better place than Chilton?"

A flurry of emotions crossed her face. Happiness, sadness, frustration, excitement and she finally settled on society mask that betrayed no emotions at all.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours Mary?" he asked genuinely concerned.

"So you're back."

"Yep."

"And you're still calling me Mary."

"Yep."

"So should I expect to find you making out with Barbie of the week on my locker tomorrow morning?"

"What? No! Why would you think that?"

"Well, it seems like you've been gone for a year, and you come back like nothing's changed. I'm just trying to prepare myself."

"It may not look like it, but I have changed. That's why I'm back. My dad finally decided I'd learned my lesson," he told her, looking down at his coffee, annoyed that he had to expose that part to her. It made him feel like such a child. He was only back because his daddy said it was okay.

"So no Barbie tomorrow then?" she reiterated.

"I'm good but not that good." She looked up at him and he smirked. "Give me at least a week. Besides, I think I've out grown my Barbie phase. I'm moving on girls I can actually hold a conversation with."

She looked at him curiously, with a bit of surprise.

"Who knows, it may even be you," he said cockily.

She smiled slightly, blushed, then controlled her features into a glare that said 'never gonna happen buster'. "In your dreams DuGrey."

"We'll just see about that."

She was single, and potentially interested, this time around was going to be so much more fun!

* * *

**AN: All right, please review and let me know what you think. **

**Also, any requests for what's next? **

**Thanks for reading and reviewing - S**


	11. Machinehead

**AN: Per DramaQueen1103's request: Here is Machinehead by Bush. **

**This is set after Luke and Lorelai break up the second time. **

**As usual, I don't own anything. **

* * *

_Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe in, breathe in – Bush_

She'd been in bed for a week now. She'd royally screwed things up, and instead of facing them she was wallowing in bed. She'd called Sookie so as not to wreak havoc at the inn, and she'd called Rory so her daughter didn't freak out, but other than that, she was on a self-imposed ban from the rest of the world. No email, no snail mail, no text messages, and no phone calls. Sure her phone was ringing off the hook, but she resolutely refused to answer it. Hell, she wasn't even answering her door. She screened her calls, but the one she wanted never seemed to come. He was long gone and she knew it.

Sookie stopped by before the dinner shift every night under the pretense of giving her an update on the inn, but she knew her best friend well enough to know that she was checking up on her. She always brought food, and usually either a new magazine or a new movie. She told her how the inn was, left the food, and took the dirty dishes from the previous 24 hours down to the kitchen.

She wanted to tell Sookie to stop visiting, but she knew she needed it. And she knew that before long she'd have to get out of her bed and face the world again. She would do it, just as soon as she stopped crying. She grabbed aimlessly for the nearest box of tissues, there were boxes strewn all around her. Empties on the floor, one on the nightstand, one on the dresser, and at least three in the bed with her. She began to wonder if she'd ever run out of tears. With the tears came the hyperventilation, and sometimes, like now, she just had to remind herself to breathe.

She took a deep breath and tried to regain control of herself. She was a Gilmore damnit she was strong enough to get through this. Her heart had been broken before, and it would probably be broken again. She sighed deeply and forced herself to sit up in bed. She felt around blindly looking for the cordless phone. He'd called several times and she had refused to answer, and now she finally needed to call him back.

"Lorelai?" he answered on the first ring.

"It's me," she said after a minute or so.

"Talk to me," he begged.

"I don't want to!" she shouted back.

"Then why did you call?" he asked honestly confused.

She sighed. "I need you. Bring cookie dough."

"I'll be right over." She hung up the phone and stared at it in her hands wondering if she'd made the right call.

* * *

Right over is relative timing. It took 2 hours before he finally showed up. She knew he hurried as much as he could, but he had to find a sitter, and find the cookie dough, and drive all the way from Boston.

She heard the knock on her door, and contemplated not getting up to answer it, but she knew he'd barge in anyhow, after all, she did invite him.

"Welcome to my humble abode," she croaked gesturing around her to the living room.

"Are you sure this is yours? It's far too clean," he teased.

She looked around and realized he was right. "Well, it must have been Sookie. I haven't been down the stairs in a week."

"Lorelai!" he scolded. "Really?" She nodded. "Why didn't you call sooner?"

She shrugged, and her eyes welled up with tears. "I didn't ask you over for a lecture you know."

"I know. I'm sorry. I brought you cookie dough," he said holding up the bag, "chocolate chip, sugar cookie and something called brownie bites."

"You're forgiven," she said with a sniff. "Now hand it over."

She managed a weak smile and he handed her the bag. When she took it, he pulled her in for a hug, which made her start crying again. He stroked her back and smoothed her hair away from her face, as he'd done many times before over the years, and even though it wasn't the man she wanted, she felt comforted.

"Oh Christopher, I've screwed up so badly," she whispered.

"It'll all work out Lore," he told her. "Why don't we take this into the kitchen? You'll feel better when you get some of that cookie dough into your system."

"Why do we need to go to the kitchen?"

"I don't know. I just assumed we'd need eating utensils for the… dough?" he responded hesitantly.

"There are spoons upstairs."

"What about coffee?"

"Also upstairs."

"Did you get a new kitchen installed since my last visit?"

"Sookie brought the important things to me. Coffee maker, TV, DVD player, mugs and spoons."

"So then, upstairs we go?" he asked.

She nodded vigorously and turned to head up the stairs with him hot on her heels. She entered her bedroom, and was suddenly grateful that it was Christopher that was over. He wouldn't care if there were clothes, tissues, magazines and movies everywhere. That was one of the perks of knowing someone for most of your life.

"Sorry about the mess," she said mechanically. She didn't mean it, and he knew she didn't mean it, but it still needed to be said.

"This is nothing compared to your room in March of 1984," he replied.

_March 1984? _she wondered, _what was that. _Rory. _Oh yeah. _"Well finding out you're pregnant and not even 16 kind of screws with a person's sense of self."

"True. But you got through that and you'll get through this," he reminded her.

"But you were there to help me then," she said quietly.

"And I'll be here to help you now."

She didn't say anything, she just ripped into the chocolate chip cookie dough, digging her spoon straight into the tube the second she got it open. She stuck the spoon full of dough into her mouth and passed the tube on to Chris while she opened the brownie batter, and the repeated the process with the sugar cookie dough, then began to rummage about for a movie to watch.

"So what do I do with these?" Chris asked. Lorelai looked up from her stack of DVDs to find him holding all three tubes precariously, trying not to get dough or batter on his sleeves.

"Well set them down on a magazine and grab a spoon!" she told him as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and he should have known. He set them down on a nearby People and looked for a spoon. "Not the People!" she exclaimed. "Use an US Weekly or something… sheesh." She shook her head at him.

"Sorry," he said sarcastically. He moved the cookie dough to an US Weekly, and took the spoon he found to the brownie batter.

"Ah-ha!" She held up a DVD triumphantly.

"So what are we watching?" he asked with his mouth full of brownie batter.

"Footloose."

"There's no easier way to feel better than watching Kevin Bacon doing some great 80's dancing."

"Exactly."

"Here, I'll put it in," he said holding out his hand for the disc. She gave it to him, then began pushing stuff off the bed so they could watch the movie together. She smiled to her self as the sound of tissue boxes, magazines, and movies hitting the floor en masse startled Christopher. She smoothed out the comforter, and piled the pillows against the headboard. She climbed onto the bed and leaned back against the pillows.

"Christopher, hurry up!" she whined. He turned to face her and she patted the spot next to her on the bed. "Come on, I need Kevin Bacon and I need him now!"

"I don't know how to…" he started, gesturing to the DVD player.

"I've got the remote control right here, just come sit down."

He sat down on the other side of the bed and toed off his shoes before scooting up to the headboard next to her, and crossing his feet at the ankles in front of him.

Lorelai hit play, and then snuggled comfortably into the bed leaning her head on Christopher's shoulder and hugging a pillow to her.

"I'm getting a huge sense of déjà vu from this," Christopher told her. "Like we did this exact same thing in 1984, down to the movie…"

"No, in 1984 you had to have your maid make the cookie dough, and we watched Flashdance instead," she reminded him.

"Flashdance, Footloose, po-ta-to, po-tah-to." He shrugged with a smile.

"Just shut up and watch the movie Hayden."

* * *

Half way through the movie Lorelai began to cry, she tried to stop it, but couldn't and it turned into sobs.

"Lore, what's wrong?" Chris asked softly.

"I'm such a screw up!" she said harshly gasping for breath. "Am I ever going to figure this relationship stuff out?"

He slid his arm around her shoulder and pulled her towards him. "You gotta breathe here," he said calmly trying to sooth her. Her gasps got quieter and further apart, and he continued, "I hope so, but I don't know, I still haven't figured it out yet either."

Lorelai snorted, she'd forgotten that Christopher's track record with women was as bad as her track record with men. "At least you made it to the alter."

"Because I got ANOTHER girl pregnant."

"If Sherry hadn't-"

He cut her off knowing where she was going. "I don't know Lore, and I don't think I can handle a trip down What If lane tonight."

"Only one lane a night, and tonight is Memory lane?" she joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Exactly."

"Why won't he call?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know. I'm not him."

"But you're a guy! You should know all things guy."

"Unfortunately that is not the case. It's Luke, Lorelai, he's stubborn and it takes him time to process things. I'm sure he'll come around eventually."

"But what if he doesn't?" she moaned.

"Well if he doesn't, then it's his loss. Eventually you'll move on."

"What if I don't?"

"Lorelai, I can't do this anymore," he said hoarsely, choking out the words. He moved to sit up and get off the bed.

"Can't do what Chris? I'm sorry, what ever it is, please don't go!" She really didn't want him to leave and for her to be all alone again.

"You know how I feel about you, and I know how you feel about Luke. I can come here and try to put my feelings aside for the sake of our friendship to comfort you and help cheer you up, but it's not fair to ask me to listen to the 'I can't live without Luke' stuff, it hurts too much."

She thought about it for a moment, he was right, she didn't even think about his feelings, and she didn't even realize she was doing it! "Christopher I am so sorry. I am such a bad person," she apologized.

"Lore, you're not a bad person, you're just wrapped up in your own stuff right now, which I understand. I'm not mad, but I also know I need to remove myself from the situation before I say or do something one or both of us will regret later."

"No Chris, please stay. There's still half the movie left. I promise, no more about Luke. Just us making fun of the clothes, hairstyles and dance moves. Please?" she asked with a hopeful look on her face.

"Alright, I'll stay." He settled back onto the bed next to her. "First topic, Ariel's red cowboy boots, how come you never got a pair of those?"

"I was pregnant when this movie came out, my feet were too swollen," she told him.

"That makes sense I guess."

They watched in silence for a bit, and Lorelai thought about the conversation they'd just had, not the red boots, but the one before it.

"Chris?" she said breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"I know I said no more, but I have to say this one thing," she hesitated waiting for his okay.

"Okay. Go." He sighed slightly impatient with the situation.

"I know we've had our ups and downs, and our moments of together and not together, and I'm sure if we could start over at the beginning we'd do it all differently, but I just want you to know, I do love you, and I'm so glad after all these years we're friends," she said quickly, trying to get all the words out before he could interrupt.

"I know Lore. Me too," he said putting his arm back around her shoulder, "now shush, Ren is about to teach Willard to dance, and I know you have at least one good overalls joke to make."

"Thank you," she whispered, then returned her attention to the movie.

* * *

**Things I also don't own: Footloose, Flashdance, People Magazine and US Weekly. **

**Here you go, I hope you like it. It's a little AU – but you know how I do love Christopher (I know I know, not a popular sentiment), but I think there's a reason Lorelai keeps going back to him over and over again throughout the years. If nothing else, they're friends and probably on some level, always will be. **

**Please read and review – you can even flame me for the pairing!**

**S**


	12. Set Adrift On Memory Bliss

**AN: Here is Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by PM Dawn, per BlancheFleur07's request. **

**I don't own the song or the show. And just so you know, Set Adrift is NOT the song Lorelai and Christopher are dancing to. **

**Set in Season 7 while Chris and Lore are married. **

* * *

_I think it's one of those de ja vu things, or a dream that's tryin' to tell me something – PM Dawn_

It had been one of those days, and Christopher was longing to get home to his wife and forget about his day. He'd been late to work because of an accident on the freeway, someone dinged his car door in the parking lot of his office, and he had a run in with Luke at the grocery store.

He opened the door to find his wife dancing in the living room. She was singing off key with the radio, and his breath was taken away. He couldn't believe after all these years she was finally his, and still so amazing.

"You know the Go-Go's broke up years ago right?" he asked after we watched her for a while.

"Gah! You scared me! Never sneak up on a Gilmore! How do you not know this lesson yet?" she asked.

"You'd think that after more than 30 years I'd learn that lesson," he said with a smile.

"You'd think," she smiled back at him. "Come dance with me?"

He wandered over to a rack of cds and pulled out an album to pop into the cd player, the song started and he extended his hand to her. "May I have this dance?"

She nodded and took his hand, "This is the first song we ever danced to."

"I know."

"I love you Christopher."

"I've loved you all my life Lorelai."

She pulled him closer and kissed him soundly. "You know this song is about stalking don't you?"

"I do now, but I sure didn't when we first danced to it at homecoming in 1983," he said with a smile.

"I can't believe you remembered that this was the first song we danced to," she said as she laid her head on his shoulder, letting him lead her around the living room.

"You'd be surprised at what I remember," he told her a moment later. He stopped dancing and stepped away from her.

"Oh really?" she asked looking up at him.

"Here," he said, offering her a small flat wrapped box that he pulled from his pocket.

"Christopher!" she exclaimed eagerly grabbing the box. "What is this?"

"Open it and find out."

She opened the box to find half a dozen thin silver bangle bracelets. She pulled them out of the box and slid them on to her arm. "Christopher they're beautiful! But why did you get them for me?"

"Well, my mom called yesterday, she found some of my stuff in the attic and thought I might like it. In the box of stuff was a present for you that I never gave you. As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. A collection of drugstore bracelets."

"Why didn't you ever give me the bracelets?" she asked curiously.

"You got pregnant with Rory, and some how I thought those cheap bracelets just weren't enough anymore," he started to explain.

"You got me a sapphire necklace for my birthday instead," she finished.

He nodded.

"You know I would have loved those bracelets just as much."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So are these those bracelets?" she asked as she ran her hand over them.

"No, these are from Tiffany's."

"Well they are beautiful, thank you. So why today?"

"Twenty four years ago today, I kissed you for the first time," he told her with a smile.

"Christopher, our first kiss was in the summer," she said in a confused voice. "Are you thinking of someone else?"

"No. I'm not talking about our first kiss. I'm talking about the first time I kissed you. Remember? You kissed me the first time. It took me more than a month to get up the courage to kiss you back."

"I can't believe you remember that!" She leaned in and kissed him again.

"When it comes to you, I remember everything."

"I still have that necklace you know," she said softly.

"You do? I figured you would have gotten rid of it after everything we've been through over the years."

"I considered it. I considered selling it when I first moved away from Hartford, but I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. It was the one thing I kept that made me feel beautiful and special when I wore it. When I'd get mad at you over the years, I'd sneak it into Rory's room and put it in her jewelry box so it was out of sight, and thus out of mind. But I always went back for it," she told him.

"Wow." He pulled her into his arms. "We really are a pair."

She laughed a little, "Do you still have the original bracelets?"

"You want them instead?" he asked as he crossed the room to retrieve the box from his briefcase.

"Instead? I want them too!" she teased. He handed her a dusty box awkwardly wrapped in faded wrapping paper, with a pink bow attached to the box. "Did you wrap this yourself?"

"Of course I did, I was 16, I didn't even know I could have someone else do it for me!" She smiled and began to gingerly open the paper. "Are you okay Lore? Normally you rip right into presents."

"I'm fine, I just wanted to preserve this paper – it's almost an antique." She got one end open, and pulled the box out of the paper, leaving the paper shell in the shape of the box. She took the lid off the box and removed the gold colored bangle bracelets that were tarnished with age and lack of wear and use. She slid them on her opposite arm. "I love them!"

"More than the sapphire necklace I replaced them with?" he asked.

"No, I love them differently, but equally," she assured him. "I love that you got me these cheap bracelets because you knew I wanted them. I love the necklace because it's beautiful, and sparkly, and it always reminded me of you. I knew with that necklace that I was never really alone, and that someone loved me. At least at one time."

"Always Lorelai. I loved you always. I loved you then, I love you now, and I loved you all the time in between, even if I didn't want to believe it."

"Charmer," she said with a soft smile. "Want to dance to our song again?"

"Anything for you." He walked over to the cd player and changed the song to that song again, and held out his hand to her. "You know, maybe we should get a new song. One that's not about stalking."

"Nope, it's been 23 years – no changes, no take backs."

She put her head on his shoulder, and they got lost in the dance.

* * *

**AN: I hope you liked this one. Let me know what you'd like to see next.**

**And if you didn't guess, the first song they danced to was Every Breath You Take by The Police – which I completely made up just this morning.**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing.**

**S**


	13. Keep The Faith

**AN: This one is Keep The Faith by Bon Jovi. **

**Set in randomly in Season Five or Six – sometime when Rory and Logan are together, but before London. **

**I don't own the song or the show.**

* * *

_Everybody needs somebody to love – Bon Jovi_

He slicked his hair back, and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. He added a flashy belt to his designer jeans and slid his bare feet into some comfortable Italian leather loafers. Finn was nothing if not eccentric, he loved keeping his friends, and their fans, on their toes, and then claiming it was all because he was exotic. He headed into the bathroom to splash on some cologne and check himself out in the full length mirror.

He stood in front of the mirror trying to get his hair exactly the way he wanted, and trying to decide if he wanted to add any accessories. Depending on his mood he might throw on a crucifix – it was always useful for inspiration if he decided to reenact The Passion of The Christ, or an earring – it made him look dangerous, or his shark tooth necklace – always a good conversation starter and it accented his exoticness. Tonight however, he decided to go au natural, just a splash of Bvlgari BLV and his wolfish smile.

A pounding on the door jarred him out of his self-admiration. "Finn, hurry up! Logan's waiting for us at the bar!" Colin yelled.

"Hold your pants on Mate, one should never hurry a lady!" Finn retorted.

"Finn you're not a lady."

"Fine, then one should never hurry an Aussie! It takes work to make me look this good," he said flinging open the door to make a dramatic entrance into the hallway. "How do I look?" he asked.

"You look fine," Colin replied.

"You didn't even look!"

Colin sighed and looked at Finn, "Honestly Finn, not even Stephanie gets so worked up about how she looks when she goes out. You look fine. Great. Marvelous. You'll be the bell of the ball."

"Thank you. Now was that so hard?"

"Can we go already?" Colin asked clearly annoyed.

"Yes Mate, we can go now." Finn grabbed a fitted brown leather jacket from the closet and followed Colin out the door.

* * *

The bar was loud, and crowded, when they arrived. As Colin said, Logan was already there, along with his girl friend, and Stephanie and several other LDBers. Finn exhaled sharply as he surveyed the bar. He couldn't believe Huntzberger had a girlfriend. Huntz was his best wingman, and now he was off the market. Colin was too conservative to be a really great wingman, besides he was in love with Stephanie. So now he was all alone, trying to navigate the high sea of babes.

"Finn, Colin!" a voice shouted from the corner. Finn turned to look for the voice. "We've got tables over here!"

Finn saw Robert wave and dragged Colin over to the table.

"Hello all!" Finn said by way of greeting.

"Hey man," Logan said back, engaging him in one of those complicated handshakes. "How's it going tonight?"

"Terrible," Finn responded sarcastically.

"What? Why?" Logan asked with some amount of concern. Man having a girlfriend was making him soft.

"There's an utter lack of redheads in this establishment tonight. Who picked this place?" he shouted.

"Seth did," Logan told him.

"Seth!" Finn shouted, and Seth looked over at him quizzically. "Did you or did you not consider my needs when you picked this bar?"

"Shut up Finn," Seth responded without even batting an eye.

"Hey," a cute blonde cooed as she sidled up beside him.

"I'm sorry love, a blonde just won't do tonight. If you have a redheaded friend though please send her my way," Finn told the girl dismissively. She thrust out her lower lip in a pout and stalked off.

"That's hair-ist Finn," Rory scolded him. "Not all of us can be exotic red heads."

"I would make an exception for you love," he told her as he wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

"Thanks Finny."

"Hands off my girl, Finn," Logan warned.

* * *

A few drinks later Finn had finally settled into his groove. The whiskey mellowed him, and an influx of women into the bar helped to ease the initial sting of the lack of redheads.

"So I think the next 'trip' should be out West," Colin said. They were having an impromptu Life and Death Brigade meeting because someone (Robert) was complaining about the time between events, and therefore in their various stages of drunkenness they decided to plan an event.

"Do you want to be a cowboy baby?" Finn asked, drawling out the word 'baby' like Kid Rock did.

"Yes Finn. That's exactly it, I want to be a cowboy."

"To each his own mate," Finn replied.

"I'm okay with California, it's been eons since I've been to Rodeo Drive," one of the girls added.

"The Pacific Ocean is much better for surfing," Logan added.

"Surfing?" Finn asked suddenly interested in the conversation.

"You know, boards, wet suits, shark attacks."

"I know what it is Mate. In fact I've done it with you before. I was just thinking that it's been a long time, and that would be fun."

"Glad we could be of some interest to you Finn," Colin said sarcastically.

"I could use another drink," Finn said to the group.

"Me too," Logan added.

"Me three," Rory chimed in.

He looked around the bar, at all the new people before deciding to order more drinks, carefully taking in his environment.

"Bartender, another round!" the Australian called out.

"Make mine a double," Colin yelled.

"So which of these lovely ladies should I take home tonight?" Finn asked no one in specific.

"What makes you think any of those girls will go home with you?" Logan asked teasing his friend.

"Yeah Finn, there are only a few redheads here, what if none of them are interested?" Rory added.

"You've gotta keep the faith, love," Finn told her. "And there goes my future wife." He left his friends to follow a tall redhead across the room.

"Finn," Logan called after him, "we're in the middle of something over here!"

"Whatever you decide is fine with me," he answered distractedly, not taking his eyes off the redhead in the short blue dress. If all went well Finn wouldn't have a care in the world for the next few hours, especially not where the next LDB trip took him. "Excuse me Love," he said to the redhead when he finally reached her, "did it hurt?"

"Did what hurt?" she asked.

"When you fell from Heaven." He could hear his friends laughing at his cheesy pickup line.

"Does that line usually work for you?" she asked.

"Yep. That and my exotic charms," he smiled at her.

She laughed a deep throaty laugh, and he expected her to walk away, but instead, she took his hand and pulled him out onto the dance floor behind her. "Maybe you can buy me a drink to ease the pain of my fall," she whispered huskily in his ear.

"Anything for you Love."

* * *

**AN: Here's just a bit of Finn for you. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what or who you'd like to see next.**

**Please read and review!**

**S**


	14. Somebody Told Me

**AN: I don't own the show or the song. **

**Set: Post Finale about 18 months later. **

_

* * *

Breaking my back just to know your name, seventeen tracks and I've had it with this game – The Killers_

After two hours at the Gilmore's Annual Christmas party, Rory was ready to bash her head into the nearest wall. She'd answered the same few questions over an over. 'How was the campaign? Why did you end up in Seattle? Have you heard [insert random fact about Logan]? Are _you_ seeing anyone?' It was enough to drive anyone to drink. She finally ditched the last DAR member that cornered her and headed for the bar.

"Can I get another martini here?" she asked the bartender.

"Coming right up, Miss." He set a fresh glass in front of her a minute later. She picked it up and took a healthy sip. She knew he was here, she could feel it. She hadn't seen him since she turned him down a year and a half ago. She was sure he was here with some hot blonde girl, all moved on and happy while she was still miserable with out him. At least that was the last rumor she'd heard. She tried to block out Hartford gossip, but her grandmother couldn't take the hint and kept peppering her with information about him.

She tipped the glass up finishing the drink and called to the bartender for a third one.

"You should really slow down there," a familiar voice said from behind her.

"Logan, hey." She hoped he wouldn't get too close, she wasn't sure if she could stop herself from grabbing on to him and begging for another chance.

"Rory. It's good to see you. You look lovely as always," he said politely.

"You look well also," she replied mechanically. "How's California?"

"It's great," he responded dryly. "Could I get a scotch neat?" he asked the bartender, then turned back to Rory while he waited. "So what are you up to these days?"

"Just working," she told him honestly.

"New York Times?"

_Did he really not even care enough to find out what she was really doing?_ she wondered, downing her drink before she answered. "Ah, no, I'm in Seattle," she responded.

"Writing for the Seattle Times then?" he asked. Even if he was no longer in the publishing industry, the knowledge remained.

"Yeah. I'm a features writer." She wanted to ask what he was up to, but she couldn't force herself to spit the words out.

"You seem to be on your way to where you want to go then."

She nodded woodenly.

"Here's your drink, sir," the bartender interrupted them by putting a scotch in front of Logan. "Do you need another miss?" he asked looking down at Rory's empty glass.

"Yes please," she answered.

Logan gave her a curious look but didn't say anything. He waited until her drink arrived, then picked up his own glass. "Cheers!" he said, inclining his glass towards hers.

"Cheers," she repeated, clinking her glass with his, then downing the contents.

"Ace-" he started, but was interrupted.

"Logan!" a shrill voice called from behind her. Rory turned around to see a tall leggy blonde in a short black dress walking towards them. She quickly set down her empty glass and signaled for another.

"Hi Gina," Logan said politely, not exactly thrilled to see her.

"Where have you been?" Gina asked.

Logan looked down at the bar and then looked at her, as if the answer was obvious. "Standing here at the bar."

"I was getting lonely," Gina cooed, draping herself around Logan. Before she could hear his reply, Rory picked up her drink and head out the closest door to the gardens.

"Rory wait!" he called after her, but she didn't stop.

* * *

She wound her way around the garden until she found an area far enough away from the house that she could no longer hear the party. She stumbled over a loose rock and grabbed the nearby stone bench to steady herself with her free hand. Four martinis in quick succession may not have been her best idea. She set down her drink and stood back up, running her hands down her dress to smooth it out, before sitting down on the bench herself. Why had he come she wondered, was it just to rub his happiness in?

She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting there, lost in thought, when she heard footsteps approaching. She hoped it was her mother, but the way her night was going, she was pretty sure it wasn't.

"There you are. I didn't think we were finished yet."

"Well I didn't want to…" she trailed off trying to figure out what she wanted to say. She didn't want to upset his date? She didn't want to upset herself? She didn't want to talk to him any more?

"Didn't want to what Ace?" he pried, taking a seat next to her on the bench.

"I didn't want to see it," she said softly.

"See what?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"You. Happy and moved on."

"I'm happy and moved on?"

"That's what I've heard. All. Night. Long."

He chuckled softly. "Funny. I've been hearing the same thing."

"That you're happy and moved on?" she questioned.

"No. That you are."

"Oh," she replied.

"Are you?" he asked.

"Are you?" she repeated without answering.

"I asked you first."

She waited a moment, then looked down, finding the drink in her hands very interesting for a moment. "No I'm not," she finally admitted to him.

"Me either."

"What about Gina?" she asked sarcastically.

"My mother," he said in an exasperated voice. "She thinks if she throws enough girls at me one of them will stick."

"Fun."

"Oh so much fun," he agreed caustically. "There's a reason I only come home once or twice a year."

"Me too."

"Really?" He couldn't imagine her willingly spending that much time away from her mother.

"Yeah. Everything here reminds me of you," she admitted. "Seattle's a fresh start."

"Well it is the home of Starbucks, so I imagine it suits you well enough," he said.

She laughed a little. "That was one of the pros on the list."

They sat there in silence for a moment. Rory shivered, the cold of the night finally catching up with her alcohol-laden state.

"Here," Logan said, shrugging out of his jacket, "you shouldn't be out here without a coat." He put his jacket around her shoulders, and began rubbing her arms to warm her up.

"The booze was keeping me nice and toasty until just now."

"It usually does."

"Thanks Logan."

"No problem Ace. Should we head back inside?" he asked.

"You go ahead, I'm not quite ready yet," she replied. She wanted a few more minutes to process the information she'd just learned. _He wasn't happy and moved on either._

"I'll wait here with you," Logan told her. "Wouldn't want you to nod off out here in the cold and freeze to death, or spill anything on my jacket." She could hear the smile in his voice.

They sat in silence for another minute or so, before she spoke again.

"Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"When I said no," she started, then hesitated.

"Yes?"

"It wasn't no to you. It was no to the timing."

"I know that."

"Why did it have to be then or never?" she asked, figuring this may be the only time she got to ask him anything.

"I was an idiot. My pride was hurt and I didn't know what else to do," he paused for a moment before continuing. "I'd just made this huge grand gesture in front of everyone, and I couldn't deal with you saying no."

"Oh."

"If it helps, it was probably the biggest mistake of my life to just let you walk away."

"A little," she said with a giggle, then sobered. "I should have said yes. We could have worked out the details together."

"You were right to say no," he told her. "You wouldn't have the experiences that you did had you said yes."

"No, I wouldn't. But I would have had you."

"You would give up the experiences you had for me?" he asked, not quite believing her.

She shrugged. "I would never be at a loss for new experiences with you."

"I do keep things entertaining."

"That you do Huntzberger." She leaned into him, not sure if it was a response to the cold, the alcohol, or comfort from the conversation they'd just had.

"So where do we go from here?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"How about inside for another apple tart?" she suggested.

"I suppose that's a start." He stood up and reached for her hand, pulling up next to him. Once she was standing beside him he continued to hold her hand, lacing his fingers through her own. She could feel the heat from his hand slowly warming hers.

"I've missed you Huntzberger," she whispered.

"I've missed you too Ace," he said, pulling her close and kissing her on the end of the nose. "Now let's go get you another apple tart."

* * *

They were almost to the house when she stopped in her tracks. "What about Gina?" she asked. She dropped Logan's hand and began to pace.

"My mother invited her, my mother can deal with her," Logan replied nonchalantly.

"Logan!" Rory scolded.

"Fine, how about we hide out in the pool house until she gives up and goes home?"

"Logan Huntzberger, are you chicken?" she teased. "Besides, what about my apple tarts?"

"I'm not chicken! I just don't want to cause a scene. Gina's the kind of girl that would cause a scene. How about this, we do the pool house thing, and I'll find out who the caterer is for the apple tarts and have some delivered to you once a month for a year."

She thought about it for a moment. "Okay. But only because Grandma would kill me if you caused a scene." She snatched his hand back up with hers and headed towards the pool house.

* * *

**AN: I know it's been a while. I've been crazy busy with real life. Please read and review, and let me know if there are any others you'd like to see! Hopefully I'll be able to update Winning Back The Gilmore Girls and In The Light Of Day in August. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**S**


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